Harper's idea of personal responsibility for one's actions...blame everyone else for his mistakes!

So this is the honest clean cut Conservative PM the Harperites told Canadians would be a breath of fresh air in his honesty, integrity, and accountability. When called on one of his policy changes which I blogged about here I might add he instead of accepting the responsibility that he made a wrong decision instead blamed the military for the problem. Something people need to remember is that the original policy was to ask the family members whether they were comfortable with coverage of the returning body at the repatriation ceremony that Harper and Minister O'Connor changed to no coverage at all. What is more they did so with zero evidence of any consultation with military families involved or even as a response to complaints by said families. No, this was a purely political decision taken by Harper likely to reduce the amount of visibility of the deadly costs involved in the Afghanistan mission and for no other reason. I found it contemptible at the time and am glad to see it reversed. I am not glad though by the way Harper blamed everyone else for his bad call and even the military for not following his instructions to let families chose (which considering his decision was an arbitrary blanket ban is pure fiction aka A BOLD FACED LIE) whether there will be coverage. It was Harper's decision about a month ago to implement a blanket ban, it was covered at the time, so for him to try and claim that this was not what he did to try and weasel away from his own publicly recorded blanket ban decision is grossly insulting to the intelligence of all Canadians, especially those that are military and/or follow military issues closely.

If Harper had simply come out and said "I made a mistake with this policy change and I am now going back to the old policy." then he would have my respect for doing so and for taking personal responsibility/accountability for a bad decision as a good leader should do. That though was not what he did. No, he blamed everyone around him but himself and tried to lie about what his decision a month ago on this matter was despite the clear public record showing the lie for what it was. This is not the act of a man of honour, honesty, integrity, and especially not accountability and personal responsibility. Which is no surprise to me given he proved his comfort with blatant lies last year with the Grewal fraud he endorsed, took advantage of, and then covered up once the fraud was exposed (this post link covers the primary details of that fraud in it).

So far I can think of exactly one Harper decision as PM where I could completely agree with him, and that is one the Silver medal being awarded to the male spouse of a dead female soldier. The fact I can only find one thing where I can completely support him is disturbing. It indicates that this man is so far away from the beliefs and principles I cherish (as many other Canadians also cherish) that he does not represent me, my views, or for that matter the Canada I grew up in and loved/respected as much as I have. It also shows that this man is far more interested in using even the military and military missions for partisan domestic political aims than he is in doing right by our men and women in uniform. For a man and a party that has for years gone on and on about how they are the only ones that really respect the military and military service their actions certainly demonstrate a level of contempt worse than any other party. Yet again one more example of Harper's do as I say not as I do approach to life, but then for Harper and CPCers it is this that is the guiding light of their beliefs...IOKIYAC (It's O K If You Are Conservative).

Harper, the man that blames everyone else for his failures and failings, from the media to the military. Yes, this is what accountable government really looks like...NOT!!!