You really cannot blame Stephen Harper for trying to fill the senate while Parliament isn’t in session. He is just being Stephen Harper: calculating, petty, opportunistic, undemocratic and hypocritical. The person you can blame is Governor General Michaëlle Jean – who gave a Prime Minister who clearly did not have the support of Parliament permission to act as the Government without restrictions or checks for a month and a half.
She should not, clearly, have allowed Harper to prorogue parliament in the first place, but giving it to him with no restrictions on the actions he could take while we wait is unconscionable and this, sadly, will be the action that defines her term as the Queen’s rep. in Canada.
Harper’s move though should be all Ignatieff needs to know. This government, regardless of it’s budget, needs to fall at the first opportunity.