Harper And "Competence": Bring It On - Please!

I must confess that this bit of news made me grin smile chuckle - oh, all right - laugh (emphasis added):

Prime Minister Stephen Harper will emphasize competence in the face of economic turmoil when he unveils his cabinet next week, while promoting fresh faces from ridings that swung to the Conservatives in the election.

"The overall message for everything that we are doing is that we're carrying on with competent government," a senior Conservative official said yesterday. "We have real strong people, and we elected really strong people as well. That's what you're going to see."

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(sorry - still laughing so hard, here ... just gimme a few seconds to compose ...)

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(this is so unbecoming of me - I apologize)

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(OK - good to continue, now)

As regular readers of APOV well know, we here at APOV HQ are all about competence - especially by exposing incompetence ... which happens to be a consistently demonstrated trait of conservatives/republicans/neocons/theocons (Bush? Cheney? McCain? Palin? - et al., anyone?)

Of course, Harper and his Harpies have not escaped this rule - just dig through the posts archived on the right sidebar as proof enough of this, folks.

Hell - here's just one example from earlier this very day.

And add to this the following other bit of news from today's headlines (emphasis added):

Politics factored into bank aid deal

When the BlackBerrys started buzzing early yesterday morning over breakfast in executive dining suites on Bay Street, even the most senior figures in Canada's banking industry interrupted their table conversations to confirm the fix was in.

The announcement from the Conservatives that the federal government will intervene in financial markets was the culmination of weeks of behind-the-scenes dialogue leading to the sovereign pledge to repay money the country's banks borrow from other banks over the next six months, up to an estimated $218-billion.

The impetus to act originated primarily from events outside Canada's borders that put pressure on banks' own cost of capital and the liquidity needed for day-to-day operation of the financial system. While international diplomatic considerations played a role, the timing and substance of the government's actions were driven in large part by domestic political calculations, according to senior figures directly involved in a high-level dialogue between Ottawa and Bay Street.

Because of these acute political and commercial sensitivities, normal lobbying channels fell silent as chief executives engaged in direct talks with Ottawa, which was represented in key discussions by a senior, unelected, advisor to Jim Flaherty, the Finance Minister. Only a tiny circle of the banks' most trusted lobbyists were at the table and on conference calls. Other veterans of government relations were excluded, while regulators participated in some meetings.

As well as this one (emphasis added):

PS faces money manager crisis

The federal government's shortage of people with the right kind of financial expertise poses a significant problem for the public service in tighter economic times, experts warn.

Charles-Antoine St-Jean, who, until a year ago, was Canada's comptroller-general, said the government has struggled for years with a shortage of accounting and financial professionals.

He worries that that shortage could undermine the government's ability to get a handle on its true costs as it heads into economic uncertainty.

That shortage becomes critical if departments are forced to make spending choices as government revenues decline.

(...) The shortage comes after years of failing to recruit or train enough qualified financial officers to handle the complexities of managing money in government. Until two years ago, the government didn't even require formal training for its financial officers -- even the chief financial officer -- as chartered accountants, certified general accountants or certified management accountants. It's now a must for all CFOs by 2009-2010.

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Competence, Mr. Prime Minister Harper?

Now, Mr. Prime Minister?

Well, thank you for admiting your previously demonstrated incompetence - such admission is a very rare occurence among incompetents and constitutes a sound first step to recovery and display of actual competence - provided of course that such an admission is sincere. I nonetheless hope that you will indeed turn a new leaf in this respect - for the sake of all Canadians, for the sake of our country.

But allow us here at APOV HQ to remain ... ah ... skeptical.

So I say to you, Mr. Prime Minister: bring it on - please!

We at APOV accept the challenge and thus I reiterate: we will continue watching you like hawks ...