Stephen "ordinary people don't care about the arts" Harper to appear on "Murdoch"

For reasons nobody understands, Stephen "Lego™ man hair" Harper will appear on tonight's episode of "Murdoch Mysteries."  Canada's supreme dictator for life prime minister is known for his disdain for the arts, cutting $45 million from arts and culture programmes, attempting to limit tax funding for Canadian film productions by denying credits to those with so-called objectionable content, and reducing funding to the CBC.  Meanwhile, the Harper government has hiked spending on military projects like new ‎fighter jets.

The idiot Harper will play a bit role as a desk clerk on tonight's "Murdoch," the latest in a series of bizarre, horrible, and some would argue cynical and calculated attempts to appear interested in and engaged with arts, or at least the popular entertainment scene.  These have included performing embarrassing renditions of classic rock songs at Conservative gala dinners and appearing for reporters with 10 year-old Maria Aragon, a little girl who found sudden internet fame after posting a video of herself singing Lady Gaga's "Born This Way" on YouTube.

The latter performance is one that stands out for its sheer audacity and lack of taste: a hard-right, nationalist, pro-military, religious conservative responsible for millions in arts cuts singing John Lennon's "Imagine," a song whose message goes against everything Harper stands for.  The mind reels.

Luckily that is one video that won't be seen again: it was removed from YouTube for "copyright reasons." Yoko Ono, Lennon's widow and a noted anti-war activist, owns the rights to the song (thousands of other cover versions of remain on YouTube).  You can, however, see a clip of Harper on "Murdoch," if you really want to:



Update: Worst. Episode. Ever.