Angry in the Great White North

From the Globe and Mail:

After dominating Canadians' political concerns in the spring, the sponsorship scandal has virtually receded from the public agenda, with traditional social-issue concerns once again top of mind, according to a new poll conducted by The Strategic Counsel for The Globe and Mail and CTV.

"What you are seeing is a normalization of the public-opinion agenda," said Allan Gregg, chairman of The Strategic Counsel. "And to some extent that was predictable. Event-driven issues can't sustain the public-opinion agenda for any length of time. And that's exactly what the Liberals were counting on, and that's exactly what's transpired."

The phrase "normalization of the public-opinion agenda" is a wordy way of saying we've dropped our standards. What was a scandal in the spring is now the way things have always been done. Gomery has been tossed town the collective memory hole.

Ironically, there is backhanded vindication for Stephen Harper:

But the disappearance of sponsorship anger could spell trouble for Conservative Leader Stephen Harper if it becomes clear that he missed his best opportunity for unseating his Liberal rivals.

Mr. Harper refused an immediate attempt to bring down the Liberal government, proposed by the Bloc Quebecois just after Groupaction president Jean Brault's testimony in the scandal inquiry became public. By the time Mr. Harper got another chance during the May 19 budget vote, Prime Minister Paul Martin had lured Ms. Stronach to cross the floor from the Tories to the Liberal cabinet -- the vote that allowed his minority to survive.

Mr. Gregg said that could explain why a June poll found that Mr. Harper's popularity had fallen most among strong Conservatives in the Prairies. "That's the sentiment, that this guy has blown it," he said. "There's a feeling that we had a great chance and this guy wasn't politically astute enough to take advantage of it."

I don't want to dwell on the details -- he might have missed that first chance, but there were others. The fact is, through the spring, Stephen Harper went on and on about the importance of bringing down the government, while everyone else was telling him how important it was for him to wait, to wait for the Gomery Report, to wait so that we don't have a summer election, to wait for the Tory poll numbers to stabilize.

Let's all remember what the Globe and Mail neglects to mention -- the Liberals ignored a non-confidence vote for a full nine days while they worked out the final details in the bribe to get Belinda Stronach. I guess that sort of thing is normal now too.

Now that things have "normalized", especially in Ontario, the shift will be to those who reject this as normal, who have higher standards for what is normal, and who are likely to do something about it. Western Separatism might become a new part of our "normal" landscape.