I can’t and won’t explain or defend the $16 orange juice or the limo, but why people focus on that and not the fact that every single day Stephen Harper moves within Ottawa with a motorcade of two black sedans (front and rear) with three smoky-glassed, bullet proof SUVs in between — FIVE vehicles — is beyond me. The reality of our outrage levels are such that $16 orange juice grabs headlines and $20 million a year on the PM’s personal security (more than double previous PMs) rolls right by without notice. It’s the way people freak out over a few pennies increase on a litre of gasoline, but, without a whimper, purchase completely unnecessary bottled water at a higher price per litre than gas. It’s just one of those human nature things that defy rational explanation.
Where I think we need to give our collective head a shake (and here I am looking directly at the national news media reporters) is the forgery of the KAIROS approval documents. The story line from the mainstream press seems to be that Stephen Harper has been putting up with a Minister who makes mistakes and gets into trouble. The inserted “NOT” in the KAIROS document gets remembered as a mistake by Oda for which Stephen Harper defended her.
[…] The very most logical conclusion of the train of events is that Bev Oda approved KAIROS funding and someone higher up, someone in the Prime Minister’s Office being the most likely suspect, ordered the Minister’s approval be reversed — resulting in the crude forgery. Harper has not been covering for Oda. She was covering for him. And, in true form, he just threw her under the bus.
– Elizabeth May, “Defending Bev Oda – but not for the reasons you think”, rabble.ca
