When the Conservative party’s house organ, The National Spot, trashes one of Stephen Harper’s ministers twice in a week, well maybe there’s something seriously wrong with that minister and the prime minister who simply refuses to see reality. John Ivison again says that natural resources minister Gary Lunn knew or ought to have known about the problems plaguing the Chalk River reactor months before they became critical and, if Harper is looking to fire anyone, it probably should be the very guy he’s been defending:

The Conservative government has laid the blame for the crisis at the feet of Linda Keen, president of AECL’s regulator, the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. Prime Minister Stephen Harper said yesterday she was guilty of “needlessly endangering” the lives of Canadians by not allowing the reactor to reopen. In a letter to Ms. Keen, Mr. Lunn asked her to provide him with reasons why she shouldn’t be fired.

But an audit of AECL’s operations by the Auditor-General, released by the nuclear operator late on Wednesday, suggests that Mr. Lunn was well aware of problems at Chalk River, including technical compliance concerns on the part of the CNSC. In this light, if anyone should be fired, perhaps it should be him.

…an ill-prepared Mr. Lunn …pitched headlong into the isotope crisis and proceeded to bully and hector a regulator who answers to Parliament, not the minister.

To no one’s great surprise, Mr. Harper backed Mr. Lunn yesterday. Speaking in New Brunswick, he said his Minister had “acted beyond the call of duty,” which suggests Mr. Dion is not going to get his wish. The nuclear regulator is required by law to be free from political interference, but for a Prime Minister and government whose modus operandi is to subject the wills of others to their own, this is an alien concept.