As in Stephen Harper’s continued assertion that he knew nothing of his Chief of Staff’s gift of $90k to Senator Mike Duffy.
In my Blogs of May 21 and 22 of this year, I recap why I thought it highly unlikely that Stephen Harper was telling the truth about not knowing of Nigel Wright’s gift to Mike Duffy.
I ended though by saying that he should be given the benefit of the doubt unless new facts came out that would prove otherwise and in such a case, dear Mr. Harper would be “toast”.
Sadly, this is exactly what has transpired as recent reports seem to suggest that virtually everyone in Harper’s own office – including his lawyer – knew of the gift in advance. It defies credibility now to suggest that Harper did not know.
In short, it is obvious to me now that he lied to the Canadian people and as such the only honourable thing for him to do is to resign.
Will he?
Not likely, but that does not mean he should not. The main thing leaders have is their credibility and when that is discarded, all respect for the office goes with it.
I hope both McGuinty & Wynne are listening.
And it is all so sad since it did not need to happen over a petty falsifying of the books by one little thief.
If you will recall, poor old tricky Dick Nixon fell on his sword in similar circumstances. History tells us that he did not know of the bungled Watergate burglary but he too got caught in the cover-up.
All tricky Dick needed to do was to report those at fault and he would have been in the clear. His failure to do so made him the first President in US history to resign.
In Harper’s case, he obviously should have told the Duffster to get lost and told Wright to keep his cheque book closed.
Failing to do that, he should have come clean and said he knew what was transpiring and quickly apologize for his stupidity.
At the very least, he should have kept his mouth shut and let the cops do their investigation.
His failure to do any of the above and then do the worst thing possible – claim he was always in the dark with respect to the Wright – Duffy loan meant that he lied and for that he must too fall on his sword and make way for someone else to take over the reigns of power.
It was all so needless but regardless of how one loses his or her credibility - once lost, it is almost impossible to reclaim especially in cases of leadership.
As I see it…
‘K.D. Galagher’
