Rae’s Open Letter To Harper

And now, from the This-Is-The-Best-Thing-I’ve-Read-All-Week department, an open letter sent by Bob Rae to Stephen Harper.

Just let me quote two little bits, which should be enough to get you to go read it. First, from the beginning:

I am writing you in my former role as Deficit Poster Boy and Punching Bag. This title was bequeathed to me by Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney when I became premier of Ontario, and I have been carrying it around on my back since 1990.

I have tried to wear the title as lightly as possible, but have to admit that its “baggage” has hindered my progress on occasion.

It is hard to describe the pleasure I take in bequeathing it to you and Jim Flaherty. Harper Holidays and Flaherty Fridays will join Rae Days in the lexicon. You will learn, as I did, that the estimates of Finance officials are never quite on, that as the layoffs and bankruptcies pile up government revenues collapse and expenditures grow.

And then my favourite OH SNAP! bit:

You will regret that your every prior thought is in print. Your old copies of Milton Friedman and Hayek’s Road to Serfdom will somehow seem less relevant and helpful.

Oh, and just for Declan, also this brilliant carve:

I must confess that while I did invest in an airplane company, save industrial towns, advance pay equity and spend heavily in housing and transit during my time as premier, it never occurred to me to pay people to sod their lawns, rebuild the docks at their summer cottages and pave their driveways.

(For the Yanks, or Canucks not paying enough attention to get that, Declan’s got it covered here in #4, and even moreso here.)

Go read the rest.

I am forced to wonder (kind of happily, I admit) if this is the start of a new dynamic: Iggy got the leadership, so Rae gets to be the attack dog. I think I’d kind of love that–especially since, with his CV, he can’t really attack the NDP the same way he can go after the right.