I disagree with Mr. B. MacKay’s letter (Gazette, Sept. 5) of condemnation of Mr. David Haas’ Sept. 2 article concerning Sen. Mike Duffy and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Mr. Haas, contrary to Mr. MacKay’s assertion, did not say Mr. Harper’s choice of Sen. Duffy was akin to the Nuremburg trials. He rather simply used a quote from the trials’ chief prosecutor, and a reference to 15th century English history. He did so to highlight that all involved with, or with knowledge of, giving Sen. Duffy $90,000 and trying to circumvent both parliamentary rules and a forensic audit cannot simply use “I didn’t know” as an excuse. Mr. Haas then points out that none involved can honestly tout that the entire operation was tightly compartmentalized and wasn’t known by all key members of the Prime Minister’s Office. I agree. Given Harper’s long-demonstrated autocratic hands-on managerial style any right-thinking observer must conclude he knew about the cover up down to the last sordid detail.
The majority of Mr. MacKay’s letter, however, is a lengthy rendition of Sen. Duffy’s personal and work-related achievements making him fit for high office and thus supporting his appointment by Harper and, further, that bureaucratic inexactness and lax procedures are partly to blame for Duffy's actions and those of many other senators. Mr. MacKay ends his letter with an implication that Mr. Harper is being unjustly pilloried in all of this.
Any reasonable person following this sordid affair comes away knowing that the current prime minister has clearly demonstrated he believes that any means is justified to achieve his ends, and that to achieve them he will both obfuscate and stretch the truth to the breaking point. I think if Harper didn’t fail his university “Ethics 101” course either he should have or he didn’t learn one single thing from attending it.
I will finish by quoting Mr. R. Heckadon’s letter to the editor on Sep. 5 wherein he states, “After nine years of Stephen Harper and all the things he’s done why would anyone in God’s name (Jehovah, Odin, Zeus, take your pick) vote for him again?”
Well said, sir!
David Merritt, St. Albert
