Four years ago, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was sure that Canadians couldn’t handle politics and the Olympics at the same time. So he shut down Parliament.

Here’s the good news: he seems to have changed his mind.

Here’s the bad news: now we’re getting politics and the Olympics simultaneously.

The past few weeks have seen Harper’s ministers front and centre at Olympic-team announcements for the Sochi games.

Transport Minister Lisa Raitt showed up, somewhat inexplicably, to be the government’s voice when the names for Canada’s Olympic men’s hockey team were unveiled.

Heritage Minister Shelly Glover was on stage when Canadians were told who would be part of the Olympic curling team.

Bal Gosal, the Minister of State for Sport, inserted himself into the announcement of Canada’s Olympic flag-bearer on Thursday, while Conservative party director Dimitri Soudas (having just finished a stint working with the Canadian Olympic Committee) looked on.

For those of us with long memories, it all evokes the cringe-inducing spectre of Marcel Masse, minister of culture in the 1980s, big-footing his way to the stage at the 1988 Academy Awards to accept an award for Canada’s National Film Board.

“I'm proud to accept this Oscar on behalf of the 26 million people of Canada,” Masse said, in what may have been the best performance in the category of Taking Credit for Things That Make Me Look Good Even Though I Had Nothing At All To Do With Them.

It could have been worse, I guess. Masse could have bellowed while holding the Oscar: “It’s the re-election. This is the million-dollar shot!”

But that kind of mixing politics with culture would have to wait a couple of decades or so, until this week, with York Centre MP Mark Adler’s shouted explanation for why he needed to get past security to be photographed with Harper at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. After those immortal words were caught on video, and widely circulated, Adler said he was just kidding.

Looking for that “million-dollar shot,” though, fits perfectly with this new, political sport of moment-seizing.

Last fall’s Throne Speech was called “Seizing Canada’s Moment.” At the same time, the Conservative party — not to be confused with the government that is supposed to speak for all Canadians, regardless of political stripe — has been conducting a “seize the moment” fundraising campaign.

Bonus: by amazing coincidence, Canada’s national broadcaster, the CBC, is saying that “it’s our moment” in its ads for the coming Olympic coverage. Apparently there was a surplus sale somewhere at the ad-slogan store, and someone bought a truckload of those packages with “moment” written on them.

Canada was host of the last winter Olympics, in Vancouver in 2010. For the government, this was declared a time of mass, single-minded celebration. Harper thought it wise to prorogue Parliament, so that the nation’s business could take a back seat to the entertainment of watching the Games. The Commons stayed shut until March 3 in 2010.

Now, though, four years later, the greater communications minds around the PMO have decided that a spoonful of the Olympics makes politics — and the Conservative party — easier to swallow.

So every time there’s an Olympic announcement to be made, the government is there, true to its Throne-Speech promise, to seize the moment.

This all may be endearing or predictable, in the politicians-will-be-politicians sense of things, if the government was also taking credit for things legitimately on its watch. While ministers are easy to find for Olympic announcements, they seem far less visible when it comes to matters actually within their authority.

Some recent examples:

A pipe bomb gets through Edmonton’s airport security. This is an issue for which the Transport Minister would normally be expected to take responsibility. Instead, Raitt headed underground, issuing statements placing the blame on the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority.

The Health Department issues permission to medically administer heroin to 16 addicts in a B.C. treatment program. Rather than take responsibility for the decision, Health Minister Rona Ambrose in a press release pronounces herself at odds with her own public servants. In turn, the Conservative party, seizing the political moment, asks donors for cash to help the government fight its own ministry of health.

In short, we seem to have a government that is all too eager to take Olympic-sized credit, but not so willing to take blame.

It doesn’t mind attaching its “brand” to the Olympics, just like private-sector corporations do. But unlike many of those private-sector firms, this government has a hard time with taking responsibility when things go wrong.

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On everything from the PMO-Senate scandal to airport-security missteps, it’s everyone’s fault except the government in charge.

“Own the podium” was a fine slogan for the 2010 Vancouver Games. Four years later, it should not be a political-communications strategy. Those moments of Olympic glory belong to the athletes, not the political class.

Susan Delacourt's latest book is Shopping for Votes: How Politicians Choose Us and We Choose Them (Douglas & McIntyre). It is http://www.StarStore.ca/delacourt also available END for purchase at StarStore.ca/delacourt

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