PM Harper continues his purge of moderates

This Canadian Press story really surprised me. When combined with the other high profile purges in the Immigration Refugee Board, Elections Canada, Environment Commissioner's Office, I am left feeling more that a little nervous about what Steve's agenda would be if he had a majority...

OTTAWA -- Parliament's upper chamber has been swept up in a wave of acrimony and turmoil over a spate of forced Tory resignations from Senate committees.
The Conservatives say the musical chairs in committees is their prerogative and simply administrative. The Liberals say it's a case of a crackdown on independent-minded senators by Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office.
The latest to announce his resignation is Senator Michael Meighen, who told his colleagues on the security and defence committee late Monday that he has been told to resign as vice-chair. Meighen had served on the high-profile and prolific committee since its inception in 2001.
"I had a conversation with the leader of the government in the Senate, who asked me if I would tender my resignation," Meighen told the committee.
"I have always been a loyalist to my party. I expressed my amazement to her. I am obviously not going to recount the nature of our conversation, but I indicated I was extremely disappointed."
Meighen had contradicted the government last fall when he defended a committee trip to the Middle East. The senators ran up a hefty tab in Dubai when they were unable to get into Afghanistan, spurring the Tories to accuse the committee of wasting taxpayers' money on a junket and demanding an internal investigation.
The senator said in an interview he doubts that was a reason for the requested resignation, which was explained to him as "administrative." But Meighen says he remains perplexed.
"I think for some reason they seem to be quite cross at me," Meighen said. "I was not given any example of some heinous crime that I had committed, or that my work was not of the best quality. I have no idea."
Meighen's departure follows that of Tory luminary Hugh Segal, who announced he had been instructed to resign as chairman of the foreign affairs committee. Senator Donald Oliver was asked to resign his chairmanship of the legal and constitutional affairs committee to replace Segal, but was blocked by angry Liberal senators.

I see a very clear not-too-Canadian pattern developing here.