Prentice Abandons Ship

What can you say about Jim Prentice? Widely regarded as a moderate conservative, well liked by fellow MP's and a well respected Calgarian. But also, a man with no influence or future in Stephen Harper's highly radicalized political movement.

Two Prentice moments that stick out for me:

1. Voting for same sex marriage. I believe that he was sincere in this vote, mostly alone among conservative MPs. In three elections in Calgary Centre North, Prentice won by wide margins. He took no political hit for this brave choice, which also says something about Calgary.

2. The second moment was the discovery of the wreckage of the British ship HMS Investigator. This ship was sent out in search of the Franklin Expedition in the 1850s and itself was destroyed in an ice pack. In August 2010 Prentice sailed out into ice free water to look down through the water at the wreckage of the Investigator. He gushed, apparently, that it was just like looking through a window into the 1800's. Actually, its probably more like looking into the future where there's no more ice and everything is under water. Prentice expressed no sense of the irony of this discovery given his responsibility as the environment minister. Archeology is made much easier by global warming I guess.

After the elaborate photo-op with the Archeologists it was back to Ottawa to cut more climate change programs.

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