Truth, Justice and the Canadian Way Part I

Two follow on stories in this morning's newspaper.

The first has Prime Minister Harper determined to track down the source of the leak ... ahem, excuse me ... the second leak wherein US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama's economic advisor is said to have dismissed his boss's tough talk about renegotiating NAFTA as political posturing. I say the second leak because, as you might recall, that second leak involved the leaking of a government memo. The first leak , the original leak, however, was verbal ... and is credited with coming from the PMO's office. More particularly, Harper's chief of staff, Ian Brodie.

But it appears that Harper isn't so interested in tracking that one down, it's the second leak involving the government memo that has caused him to call in an "internal security team" and vow to use "every legal and every investigative technique necessary" to find the source. Not only that, but "based on what (investigators) find, and based on legal advice, we will take any action that is necessary to get to the bottom of the matter".

Strong language, that. However,

Government officials have said they will not seek out of the source of the original leak.

A little bit of hypocrisy there, perhaps? And the RCMP have not been called in, as requested demanded by the Opposition. Perhaps it is feared that that sort of investigation could result in the source of the first leak being outed as well?

Just to be clear, I am not particularly interested in taxpayer money being used to tracked down the source of either leak. Provided that we're fair ... if we're going to go after one, why aren't we going after both? Other than that, its just posturing, hypocrisy and silliness. Pathetic. In other words, politics as usual.

So did the leaks hurt Obama's campaign? Maybe a little. But we'll probably never know for sure. Hmm, I wonder if any US officials have ever made any comments during a Canadian election which might be thought to have a possible effect on the ultimate result?

At any rate, like I said before, I think the original comments were pretty pathetic, let alone the brouhaha which has resulted. But I was wondering something else too ... wasn't it also leaked that Hillary's camp had sent similar signals to Ottawa about her scapegoating of NAFTA? Whatever happened to the outrage over that "leak"?

Hey, folks, its winter in the Great White North. Has it come to this? Have we actually been forced to manufacture outrage just to get us through the winter blahs?

Update: Better late than never?

Update II: Good for the goose, good for the gander.