Harper picking fight with
Ontario?

Prime Minister Harper has once again shown his partisan approach to government in his dealings with Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty.

Last week, Harper met with the Premier for a mere 45 minutes, in a low-profile, no camera situation. After this, the Prime Minister made an appearence at the Provincial Progressive Conservative Fundraiser where he called the leader of the provincial party, John Tory, "the next Premier of Ontario".

The Ontario Premier has been having difficulties even arranging to meet with the Prime Minister, and this meeting had taken 3 months to arrange. In the meantime Prime Minister Harper has been publicly courting Jean Charest (Premier of Quebec), and now he's playing politics with John Tory.

Although I support the Pronvincial Progressive Conservative Party, I don't think Harper has respected Ontario's democratic choices. This sort of action reminds me of Rick Mercer's take on equalization. (under March 28, 2006)

This partisan approach to being Prime Minister is simply not appropriate. However, Harper has shown during his short-term in office that political ethics (beyond the Accountability Act) is not one of his five priorities.