Apolitical Staples

Check out this review from Bruce Cheadle.

...As the focal point in an administrative system dubbed the hub-spoke, Harper has been churning out policy and personnel decisions with a methodical regularity since being sworn in Feb. 2.

He's negotiated a softwood lumber deal with the United States, signed off on a compensation package for residential schools, announced a judicial inquiry into the Air India bombing, cut off Canadian aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority and banned the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist group.

He has poached a senior Liberal cabinet minister, appointed a party fund-raiser to the Senate and his cabinet, stared down Parliament's ethics commissioner, inflamed public and military opinion by changing the protocol for soldiers killed in action, fired a communications director and scorned the national media.

Critics are also quick to note that he has pulled the plug on a fledgling national daycare program, slashed funding for Kyoto climate-change programs and ditched the Kelowna aboriginal accord.

He's travelled to Afghanistan to visit the troops, delivered a budget that makes good on election promises to cut the GST and pay parents of young children $1,200 a year (minus taxes), and he's signed an agreement with the Quebec government giving the province a presence at UNESCO.

And, with a couple of exceptions, he's done a good job keeping loose-lipped MPs from attracting unwanted attention to controversial issues such as abortion and judicial activism.

Enough in there for everyone to find something to praise and something to damn.