Login / RegisterBev Oda becomes the latest former Progressive Conservative to abandon Stephen Harper's ship
Bev Oda's resignation from cabinet and Parliament today didn't include the usual homily about wanting to spend more time with her family.
Instead, the Durham Conservative MP issued a statement talking up her accomplishments as the minister of international cooperation.
Some will probably link Oda's decision to leave politics at the end of this month to an expense-account scandal earlier this year, in which she tried to bill taxpayers for a limousine and a $16 glass of orange juice. In the process, she became something of a national joke.
Others will undoubtedly recall how she misled Parliament before the last election.
But I'm left wondering if there may be something deeper going on.
Oda is a former Progressive Conservative. Another former Progressive Conservative, Lee Richardson, announced his sudden resignation from Parliament on May 30.
A third former Progressive Conservative who served in Stephen Harper's government, CIBC vice chair Jim Prentice, recently wrote an article criticizing the feds for their approach to the export of bitumen.
Prentice quit the cabinet in November 2010, ostensibly to spend more time with his family.
Meanwhile, Harper's parliamentary secretary, Dean Del Mastro, is under investigation by Elections Canada for allegedly exceeding his campaign-spending limit in 2008. And the Conservative Party of Canada is coming under fire in the robocall affair.
If Defence Minister Peter MacKay, the last leader of the Progressive Conservatives, suddenly announces his departure from politics because he wants to spend time with his family, then Oda's resignation might take on greater significance.
As things stand now, it's not likely to be more than a one- or two-day story.
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Falling down, falling down..."
Miguel
Harper might be a very effective Leader of the Opposition, and that may be his final legacy, but it sure won't be as an effective Prime Minister.
It might be a good idea to keep an Advent Calendar of sorts of the upcoming resignations and retirements in the Harper Administration.
It's time for Humpty Dumpty to fall...
Imagine, they all thought that they would be, like, these fancy, classical cabinet ministers, these historic figures with their little names engraved on little fucking plaques under gaudy, colonially framed paintings, their political exploits, highlighting their political acumen and specialness, richly documented in complementary and, even better, balanced accounts of the political dramas they helped resolve, the public service milestones they achieved, their legacies. And then they realized what they were, like the poor girl who got in that car with that man to Los Angeles thinking that she was going to be a star...
Remember Bennett talking about Gordo, how he got roughed up and spat on by the Gordfather when he got out of line? Well Harper be on some Goddamn federal shit. He's probably got a toilet in his office just to flush a minister's head in... for making eye contact.
Thank God she's ODA here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bev_Oda#Controversies_and_scandals
She was a liability and had to go.