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A glance at the record reveals a pattern. In the fall of 2011 the now-defunct Sun News faked a citizenship ceremony with the co-operation of officials in Mr. Kenney’s department, at the time Immigration. When this came to light he declined to apologize and blamed it on underlings.

In November of 2013, at the height of the Rob Ford fracas, Mr. Kenney and the late Jim Flaherty reportedly nearly came to blows in the House of Commons after Mr. Kenney publicly called on Mr. Ford, a Flaherty family friend, to quit. Mr. Flaherty was in his mid-sixties and in failing health; Mr. Kenney is in his mid-forties and young enough, just, to be Mr. Flaherty’s son. Later there was some public smoothing-over by Mr. Kenney, but no expression of contrition.

Last Oct. 22, as Ottawa reeled amid the attack on the National War Memorial and on Parliament, Mr. Kenney pre-emptively revealed on Twitter that a Canadian soldier, later identified as Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, had been killed, short-circuiting DND’s procedures for communicating deaths among its members. No remorse was ever expressed.

Last Oct. 22, as Ottawa reeled amid the attack on the National War Memorial and on Parliament, Mr. Kenney pre-emptively revealed on Twitter that a Canadian soldier, later identified as Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, had been killed, short-circuiting DND’s procedures for communicating deaths among its members

In early March, Mr. Kenney Tweeted photos of the ramp ceremony for Sgt. Andrew Doiron, killed by friendly fire in Iraq, in doing so revealing the faces of special operations soldiers, which is normally forbidden for the soldiers’ own safety. He responded to criticism by insisting that officers in Iraq had made the decision to release the photos. On March 8, Mr. Kenney Tweeted photos of burka-clad women in chains, ostensibly enslaved by ISIS; in fact, as reported by the Ottawa Citizen’s Glen McGregor, the images depicted scenes from a ceremonial play. On March 14 on CBC Radio’s The House, guest host Terry Milewski called Mr. Kenney on both counts. The minister forcefully asserted he’d acted correctly.