True Gnu Blue

Prop-A-GammonIsTheirGame
ConArtistaVille

Last week we noted that the Harper government had splashed a big, fat CCRAPtacular baby-blue-eyes-of-lyin'-brian-type propaganda banner across the top of Environment Canada's Weather forecasting website.

And guess what?

It's still there.

Now, you might think that this is just the misguided work of an overzealous junior operative located deep within the bowels of Sandy Bee's machinery and that the Conartistas would sheepishly pull it all down as soon as it was noticed by the wider world.

But if you did think that you would be wrong

Because it is now very clear that they know that we know and, regardless, they are still telling us to go to heckfire in a handbasket.

How do we know that they know that we know?

Well, as Alison pointed out over at the Galloping Beaver, it's all available in that crazy bit of of transparency called Hansard:

Mr. Charlie Angus (Timmins—James Bay, NDP):
Mr. Speaker, the Conservative spin machine has its grubby fingerprints over every aspect of the public service. Government websites that are meant to provide public information are now being used to sell the divisive and wrong-headed throne speech of the government. When people go to the Environment Canada weather website to find out if it is going to rain today, they should not have to worry about being deluged with blarney from the PMO.

My question is simple. Why is the government using taxpayers' dollars to sell a partisan and wrong-headed agenda to Canadians?


Hon. Peter Van Loan (Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister for Democratic Reform, CPC):
Mr. Speaker, it is something new when the government is doing something wrong when it is trying to communicate with Canadians about what it is doing.

I have to say that when people go to the Environment Canada website I suspect it is because they care about the environment. They want to know what the government is doing about the environment: what we are doing to clean up our air by introducing mandatory targets for emissions, what we are doing to clean up Canada's water, and what we are doing to protect Canada's endangered species. They are looking at that and they are saying, “Finally, a government that is taking action for the environment”.


Yup, that's what we're all saying when were checking the weather forecast to see if we need gumboots, or woolen mittens, or even a shot glass for that very last little chunk of polar ice, "Finally, a government that is saying one thing and doing the exact opposite."

Regardless, you've gotta love that monicker that has been slapped on Mr. Van Loan as he simultaneously supports both the suppression and subversion of democracy.

OK?

_____
And does Sandy Bee's machinery really need a majority to make Hansard as subservient as the Parliamentary Press Gallery? Like, maybe, Mr. Van Loan could just further Democracy by having the whole thing replaced with a round-up of sweet nothings from, oh I dunno, maybe Jane Taber telling us who's been Hot and who is Not on the House floor once a week or some such thing.

.