Ottawa

O Harper Canada

Has the country been renamed?

Headline on a news release, issued this morning, from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency.

HARPER CANADA INVESTS IN INFRASTRUCTURE FOR MUNICIPALITY OF ARGYLE

The online version goes with “Harper government.” Perhaps there was momentarily some confusion between that new official moniker and the old “Government of Canada.”

Update 2:56pm. ACOA says it was an editing error. Such errors might more easily be avoided if it were generally agreed that it is the Government of Canada, that supra-partisan expression of our collective will, that allocates our collective contributions to the greater good. The Harper government did not invest in infrastructure for the municipality of Argyle today. Beyond the bank accounts of its cabinet ministers, the Harper government has no money.

Update 3:13pm. But doesn’t the media refer to the Harper government? Yes. But arguably this is a way of assigning political responsibility and, perhaps, separating between the politicians who are in charge and the grand apparatus that is the Government of Canada: the apparatus that was created and existed before Stephen Harper became prime minister and will continue to exist (if in some smaller form) after he is no longer prime minister.

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