Real Crisis? or Fake?

In this country, a cabinet minister was fired yesterday. Or rather, her resignation was accepted and she was kicked out of the Conservative party. The RCMP has been called in. This is a really big deal.

Why? Dunno. Don't even know when we'll know.

Why? Because the Prime Minister didn't say, "We've referred the matter to XYZ organization, and more details will be forthcoming as we know them," it was "We've referred the matter to XYZ organization, and that's really all you need to know."

Sorry, Mr. Prime Minister--you don't get to decide what we know. And thanks to his instinct to control news and determine what people do and don't know (about things that aren't even directly connected to himself), he's created a fake crisis situation.

Contrast that with what's now happening in Poland, where one plane crash has taken out all of the senior government officials. All of 'em: financial, political, military. THAT's a crisis. One can ask why they were all traveling on the same plane, but still. They're facing something horrible, difficult--REAL. It's not manufactured by someone trying to retain power by withholding information.

Even though this particular minister has long been a resignation just waiting to be tendered, the Prime Minister tolerated her. Praised her, even. So this about-face and closed mouth is startling. And speculation is rampant. In fact, the very LACK of information may be creating Himalayas out of the Niagara escarpment.

People always talk about Prime Minister Harper's intelligence and political instinct. They must mean only that he's book-smart and goes for the jugular. They can't mean that he understands the power of human imagination.

If he did, his announcement would have been quite different. It would have been open and responsible. And he would not be in the midst of a self-made crisis.