Trigger-happy

The CP reports on the RCMP's ongoing income trust investigation, and notes that at least one prominent Lib seems to have reacted to this year's election loss with a view that the party needs to be quicker to take revenge on nonpartisan officials who publicize bad news:

Wayne Easter, who was once political master of the Mounties as Liberal solicitor general, argued the Martin government should have given Zaccardelli the boot as soon as his letter (mentioning the RCMP's income trust investigation) was made public.

"In an election campaign you don't call an investigation unless you have absolute substance for that investigation," Easter said the day Zaccardelli finally resigned.

As noted in the article, it seems fairly clear that the decision was at least a reasonable one within the scope of the commissioner's duties. After all, the calls for an investigation had been made publicly, meaning that there was some need to respond publicly but cautiously - which Zaccardelli plainly did.

Moreover, it's not as if Easter's current suggestion would have made any sense politically. Can Easter really believe that the Libs would have improved their public perception by firing the RCMP commissioner for announcing an investigation into a matter which was already in the public eye? Would he really expect the result to have been anything but Harper painting any dismissal as an attempt to halt the investigation itself? And do any of us want to know what the electoral results would have been in that event?

I have to assume that Easter would have enough political acumen to know the realistic answer to all of these questions has to be "no". But if so, that only signals that Easter is entirely willing to take a completely implausible stance in an effort to both tie Zaccardelli to the Cons, and keep deflecting blame for the 2006 result. Which offers just one more example of the Libs having seemingly learned nothing - and one more reason not to reward them with the opportunity to put ideas like Easter's into effect in the future.

Update: The Tyee points to this story with a few more details from earlier this month - featuring Irwin Cotler apparently siding with Easter (without going specifically saying that firing was warranted), while Anne McLellan focused solely on the political issue while stating that she would have ordered a review after the campaign.