I would imagine that the decision by the BC Supreme Court, regarding Insite, brought out alot of big sighs of relief from Mr. Clemente and Mr. Harper.
The deadline for making a no-win decision was fast approaching. They had to choose from two equally unpalatable choices.
1) Ignore the growing body of evidence that suggests Insite is doing some good and close it down.
2) Or the opposite.
Decision one would have caused a storm of protest from many, leaving the government open to all sorts of accusations of placing ideology over science and generally alientating a large number of people, including many in BC, which will be very important in the next election.
Decision two would have alientated the Conservative base, which is not a good idea at the moment.
Neither option is good for a government that can now be officially labeled as embattled.
Thankfully for them the BC Supreme Court let them off the hook.
Now they have the best of both worlds. They no longer have to make that no-win decision and they can pander to their base by stating that they are "upset" with the decision. Further they can use that decision to further push their idea that Canada's judiciary is too "activist", which always goes over well with Conservative supporters.
As well, they can now appeal that decision knowing full well that the process is going to take a year or more to finish. That takes Insite off the list of issues that can hurt them and it takes away any need for a decision on Insite until after the next election. At that time the Conservatives will either still be in power facing a disorganized, demoralized opposition or they will be on the opposition benches. Either way Insite will no longer be a potentially damaging issue.
It has been a terrible winter and spring for this government but the BC Supreme Court gave them some good news yesterday. I hope that they are suitably thankful for that.
1 comment:
Hey, this is right on. I saw it as a big win for Clement especially. His dithering on the issue (repeated temporary extensions) was likely because he personally was not opposed but PMO marching orders said otherwise.
Now he gets to stand in solidarity with the flat-eathers w/o doing the obviously stupid thing.
Those pesky liberal judges eh?
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