The PM an Alarmist? I Never Would Have Guessed

Alarmist: (noun) A person who tends to raise alarms, esp. without significant reason, as by exaggerating dangers or prophesying calamities. (dictionary.com)

Now, certain politicians have got this down to a science. I’m sure some manufacture problems, so they can come to the rescue. But not one does it better than the top politician in the country- Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The PM is the embodiment of everything that is an alarmist.

That’s not to say he goes running up and down the west block of Parliament, screaming at the top of his lungs- but merely in the way he chooses to answer questions in the House of Commons. It’s funny- we’ve come to expect a very demure Harper in the Commons, standing, buttoning the suit jacket and generally being very in control answering whatever the feeble opposition throws his way. One answer struck me a strange in the past week or so.

The government was asked about it abysmal record on the transfer and alleged torture of detainees in Afghanistan’s prison system. The opposition has pounded away at the government for a couple of weeks now and most of the time the question is deflected and never really answered. It’s a fact of life in Question Period- questions routinely go unanswered. However, for some reason when the Liberals asked Harper about the subject last week, his alarmist side came out and he started making references to the Geneva Convention. Where did this come from? No one said anything about Geneva or even that the Afghan government had broken any of it’s human rights and rules of war principles.

The Prime Minister is clearly trying to score political points by bringing up the Geneva Convention. He’s trying to paint the Liberals as alarmists- when really, it’s him that comes off looking like “Chicken Little.”

It can score big- People hear Geneva and they think about war crimes and tribunals and the Hague- clearly not what the Liberals intended when they asked about prisoner torture. Certainly, they probably should have expected this from a government that will not let the people of Canada forget about the Liberal "record" of their 13 years in office, and the very same one that is 16 months into it's mandate and still refers to itself as "new."

We have 308 people running this country. The majority of them are seasoned politicians who know how to ask and answer question to give people what they want. They’re not stupid. In fact, some of them are the smartest people this country has to offer. Yet, when they are asked a question they feel the need to let their mind wander to a place where people generally can’t follow. Or, they’re like the Prime Minister and turn the question around so many different ways people get confused and wholly dismissive of politics and politicians. Or run for the fire alarm.