Palin Syndrome

By Sniffles

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his minority Tory government are afflicted with a terrible south-of-the-49th-parallel disease.

That is, they are saddled with a female "star" whose behavior has ranged from ethically suspect to wildly immature to downright dangerous. The difference is that she's finally crossed a line. Helena Guergis, the minister of state for the status of women, has been sacked by Harper and booted out of the cabinet and Conservative caucus.

Way, way too late for a lot of people's tastes. But more about that later.

Ms. Guergis reminds us cats of Sarah Palin in multiple ways. She's good-looking, she has a husband who's been in a bit of hot water himself, and she was placed by a party leader who should have known better in a position for which she was not qualified. She also appears to carry a supreme, yet deeply unearned, sense of entitlement. Why else would she have thrown a tantrum at the Charlottetown, P.E.I. airport when she showed up late for a flight and was barred from blasting through security?

"I'm going to be stuck in this shithole because of you," she screamed at the airport employees — a statement which a lot of Prince Edward Islanders took kind of personally.

But it wasn't the tantrum that caused Ms. Guergis to ultimately lose her job. Harper stepped in only after an unidentified "third party" came forward with allegations about something, but we don't know what. The government declines to give details — but they're apparently sufficient to sic the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on her.

Well, we cats say, enough. George W. Bush's good friend Stephen Harper is a tad slow to react. In our view, the prime minister had reason to rein in Guergis long before she started swearing at airport security folks. Back in January 2008, she endangered then-Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion by revealing the details of a trip Mr. Dion and current leader Michael Ignatieff made to Afghanistan. The security breach was laughed off by Harper and his government.

Hmmm: Good-looking right-wing female superstar proves herself a few Mooseheads short of a six-pack — for which she is then inexcusably excused?

Kind of reminds us of somebody. We cats HISS.