Flanagan lays into PM's prorogation defence


In a panel interview on Power & Politics with Evan Solomon, Tom Flanagan, former chief of staff to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, doesn't mince words on the prime minister's suggestion on Monday that the instability of the current minority Parliament hurts the markets.

Flanagan: "Well, you know, it actually doesn't make much sense to me. The market just in this past year had, I think, its greatest increase in a single year, and that was in, during a minority government. I don't think the antics of politicians have actually that much to do with the market, i think that's based on economic fundamentals as investors see them. So i think the prime minister is stretching a bit when he made that comment.

Solomon: "What do you think the strategy is behind that, Tom?"

Flanagan: "Well, I don't know that there's much strategy behind it. I think his problem is that the government's talking points really don't have much credibility. Everybody knows that Parliament was prorogued in order to shut down the Afghan inquiry, and the trouble is that the government doesn't want to explain why that was necessary. Personally I think it was highly defensible action, but instead of having an adult defence of it, the government comes up with these childish talking points. So then you try and backfill with other stuff that doesn't make much sense either. So it's a self-created problem."

Flanagan, for good measure, then added: "I hope nobody thinks I'm a Harper stooge anymore."