| Picture credit: clip from The Alberta Election Results, In Photos by Huffpost
The former Senate page Brigette DePape, who made headlines by holding up a “stop Harper” sign in parliament last June, travelled all the way from Ottawa to Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith’s home riding of High River, Alta. to hold up another sign, this one saying “Stop Harper’s Gang.”
Readers will remember that this is the same young activist who stood in protest during the June 2011 throne speech in the Senate, holding a sign that read, “Stop Harper!”
Such a clever girl, eh?
This shameful action earned Ms. DePape a prompt dismissal from the Canadian Senate Page Program—participants are expected to act in a non-partisan manner and not disrupt parliamentary proceedings—and got her international notice: her protest was featured in a front-cover illustration for a book, Contempt of Parliament, which was published in Ireland earlier this year.
In a subsequent interview, Ms. DePape is reported to have said, “Harper’s agenda is disastrous for this country and for my generation.”
Really? Such arrogance and in one so young. While Canada receives international praise—from far and wide—for its high quality of governance and its prudent fiscal management, this young woman condemns the government’s agenda as “disastrous,” and shows the utter contempt with which she, apparently, holds our parliamentary traditions.
And Ms. DePape’s arrogance, apparently, knows no bounds. Not content to allow Alberta voters to make up their own minds, she travels to that province to protest against the Wildrose party, saying Wildrose policies are more extreme than those of the federal Conservatives.
My guess is Albertans are quite capable of making their own voting decisions without gratuitous advice from outsiders, especially from one who recently thumbed her proverbial nose at one of our major democratic institutions, and now stands as a virtual poster-girl for contempt of parliament.
God preserve us from self-righteous leftists.
© 2012 Russell G. Campbell