"The government's talking points don't have much credibility. Everybody knows that Parliament was prorogued in order to shut down the Afghan inquiry, and the trouble is that the government doesn't want to explain why that was necessary. I personally think that was a highly defensible action but instead of having an adult defence of it the government comes up with these childish talking points so then you try to backfill with other stuff that doesn't make much sense either so it's a self-created problem.I hope no one thinks I'm a Harper stooge anymore."
BNN : Shouldn't Parliament have a role now in this fragile economic recovery? Is this the time to suspend Parliament? What about the optics of this decision because Canada is seen as a reliable stable financial haven right now? Even The Economist has taken issue with your suspending Parliament right now. Is there a risk to Canada's reputation because of this move?"Harper : "No. There's zero risk ... [I missed a bit] ...The games begin when Parliament returns. The government can take time now to do the important work, to prepare the economic agenda ahead. That said, as soon as parliament comes back, we're in a minority parliament situation, the first thing that happens is a vote of confidence and there'll be votes of confidence and election speculation for every single week after that for the rest of the year. That's the kind of instability that I think markets are actually worried about but the government will be well-prepared.
...Harper was starting to look like Richard Nixon refusing to hand over the Watergate tapes. (But perhaps that's an unfair comparison. After all, no one was tortured in the Watergate scandal...
