Harper’s Senate appointments: In your face!

What Harper did today on the Senate was one of his most outrageous acts. The sheer audacity, Harper didn’t even wait until Friday afternoon to drop this announcement, instead he voluntarily stepped all over his cabinet shuffle. The Conservatives have betrayed old commitments, usurped democratic will, perhaps even "one upped" those dirty Liberals that they so despised, again just brazen disregard. But, here’s the kicker, it simply doesn’t matter one IOTA and Harper bloody well knows it. 

If there is one thing these past few years have taught us, it’s that what appears a blight is really a mirage, relegated to chattering classes, while the real world chugs on unaffected. It’s for this reason that Harper can do what he did in the middle of the week, and sleep like a CHAMP tonight, secure in the knowledge he acts with impunity. Layton didn’t score any points, nobody heard him and Harper is well aware. We have four years of rule to look forward to, you think one voter will be moved by a Senate appointment in 2011, let alone REMEMBER it? Speaking of remembering my fellow political junkies, think of all those issues that arose over the past five years that seemed "big", would "resonate", etc. Nada, they all disappeared, and this circumstance occurred with a minority, the threat of an election around the corner. Heck, in my little world, I had myself convinced this spring that we had a "cumulative effect", wherein all these affronts to democracy would be congealing into a compelling counter narrative, Harper would face a backlash. BAHAHAHAHA!!!

Next week, Angus Reid will release a poll saying 72% of us reject Harper’s Senate appointments, 54% strongly disagree. The political junkie class with digest, MYSELF included, but it’s time we understand what Harper has already figured out, it’s irrelevant. Yes, if there is one lesson from today, in the most starkest terms imaginable, it’s that Harper has cracked the code, he operates with no concern for the consequences, because he knows there aren’t any. Disagree, that’s fine, but I see today as almost a paradigm moment, that entirely encapsulates the political reality. Why didn’t Harper do this on a late Friday afternoon? Because he didn’t have to, that’s why.