Once again the PM was given a chance to make amends to Canadians and the Opposition. Once again he failed. As a member of the Conservative party, I am, to say the least, disappointed and to say the most, disgusted with Stephen Harper. How bloody hard can it be to simply say, "I made a mistake." Moreover, in my opinion, he did. Instead of being humbled and thankful for another minority government, he spitefully moved to deprive the opposition of campaign dollars funded by the taxpayers. I do not believe any of the parties should be funded by the taxpayers, but that is beside the point. The point being that he knew, knew, that this move was nothing more than a slap in the face which would enrage the opposition. He also knew that restricting public sector union's ability to strike would ignite a huge furor, yet he added that as a further insult. He simply could not be anything more than he is, an arrogant and small-minded person lacking completely in social skills and diplomacy.

Once the expected anger was evident, did he step back immediately, apologize, and move to soothe the ruffled feathers? No way, not our Stephen. He enabled the formation of the Axis of Idiots (aka coalition) and then raged against the inclusion of the Bloc which sufficed only to kill any chance our party had to court Quebec voters. I don't blame Quebecers for being angry even though the Bloc does not belong in Parliament considering their expressed desire to separate from Canada. Even so, the fortunes of the separatists had fallen of late and tempers were cooler. Along comes Stephen to re-ignite the flames and once again put separation on the table. That this is evident was seen by the slim majority which was given to Charest in the Quebec election. As one pundit mentioned, it is a good thing the election did not drag out longer or this majority may not have been realized, thanks to Stephen Harper.

It really saddens me that I feel this way as I had such hopes for both Stephen Harper and our Conservative party. I still have great hopes for our party, but none for Stephen Harper. Had we not just had our convention, I would be calling for one now. We need a new leader. I for one would like to see Jim Prentice run for party leader. He has shown himself to be trustworthy, down-to-earth, and more than able to present our party and himself as able to govern with grace, maturity and open minded discretion.