Accountability

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Interesting watching the news tonight, with the question of "who's to blame?!?" starting to surface in the Conservative party. Some seem to want to pin the culpability on Harper’s Chief of Staff, Guy Giorno. Well, given he was part of the Harris and Eves fiascos in Ontario, I can’t say I’d trust him any further than I could throw him, and he probably does need a good proverbial "cuff up side the head". But, at the end of the day, the top guy is always accountable for all the work products, decisions, and consequences of those work products and decisions of all of his subordinates. So, at the end of the day, after all the gaffs and resulting disasters of his ministers, chiefs of staffs, aides, and all that, it’s Harper who is accountable. That’s what comes with the top job. It may have just been a comic, but as Spiderman’s uncle said, “With great power comes great responsibility,” and that means accountability too. In fact, I think it would be good if Harper rented the 1993 movie "Dave" (staring Kevin Kline and Sigourney Weaver) over this weekend and paid attention particularly to Dave's speech to the joint session of Congress close to the end of the movie, where Dave states, "I forgot I was hired to do a job for you... I ought to care more about you than I do about me." I really don't believe Harper was caring for Canadians this past couple of weeks. He cared more about buttressing his position and his party, not doing what was good for Canadians.

As an aside, that accountability thing goes for the rest too. So, just as I've indicated before, Dion's video mess of last night is Dion's fault. I still don't think Dion can manage a corner store, let alone the country. But then neither can Harper. Well, I expect Harper might be able to manage the corner store... as long as no Québecers came in to buy anything...

But back to my main point here, whether he wants to throw the blame on someone else or not, Harper is ultimately to blame. Let’s not forget that. It was his leadership — his dismal, divisive, and destructive leadership — that got us here. He has to go.