Steve phones the GG
Ottawa, Ontario
Related posts:
Ottawa, Ontario
Totally Random Posts
He's GONE!
A de-motivational poster.
Recent comment-taters
About me and a disclaimer
Some bald guy from the nation's capital.
All rights reserved 2010.Ottawa, Ontario
Trashy's World
Scribbling some perspective on Canada, politics and whatever else crosses my mind…
Ottawa, Ontario
Some bald guy from the nation's capital.
All rights reserved 2010.Trashy's World is using WP-Gravatar
Twitter links powered by Tweet This v1.7, a WordPress plugin for Twitter.
And while I’m at it… this sort of thing is EXACTLY why the GG should be elected, or at least appointed by a non-partisan citizens committee, and not a political hack appointee. The GG should have the cojones to tell the PM (whoever it is) to get his lazy arse back to work.
So if we all agree that proroguing is cheesy and undemocratic, let’s stop making Harper out to be the demon and complain at the thing that is actually wrong/broken: the system.
Bitching about the PM doing something that he’s allowed to do and that his predecessors have done so many times doesn’t achieve anything useful. It’s the system that’s broken, the system that needs to be changed, and the system that needs to be complained about.
The Libs and NDP wanted to steal parliament through a legal, but highly undemocratic parliamentary trick that is worse than proroguing. That they could even conjecture that such an idea might be successful indicates a serious deficiency (hey, is that the only word in the English language that breaks “i before e except after c” ?) in our political system, not really a problem with the parties or people involved.
“As for the coalition, it was not, I repeat NOT unconstitutional.”
And neither is proroguing. They are both valid options in our parliamentary system.
The problem that I have with all of this is that the Liberals have done it and it was apparently okay then. Nowhere have I seen in Liberal-based blogs that I’ve read that the author has actively said something along the lines of “Yes, it was done then and it’s wrong now”. Repeat: Actively said, in a blog post or news article, not in comments that are buried under other posts.
In any event, no one has explained why Iggnatief is off on vacation while his party is at work, while the Conservatives and Harper are at work.
If it’s so damn important to be here at work, why isn’t Iggnatief here??
Gentlemen – need I remind you that, if I had had a blog back then, I would have railed equally as ferociously against the Grits.
And as far as that cool .jpg goes – um, I did that. I’m pretty freakin’ creative, eh?
On second thought, don’t answer that
But I do have a soapbox now and will continue to do so. Just because it was done before does not make it right to do it again. Lawrence Martin puts it well in his article today in the G&M – something I elaborated on in the post I wrote last night (it will pop up later today):
“Another line of defence is that Mr. Harper isn’t the only proroguer. Liberal PM Jean Chrétien did it too, although none of his closings could match the desperation of Mr. Harper’s prorogation of December, 2008. So what’s the big deal? This is a common Conservative defence refrain. As in, the Liberal record on global warming was terrible too. So what’s the big deal? As in, the Liberals sent disproportionate amounts of stimulus monies to their own ridings too. So what’s the big deal?
One big deal is that we’re supposed to be making progress, moving down the field, not staying on the 30-yard line.
Another is that we have a Prime Minister who thinks he can get away with anything, but who may well find out otherwise.”
As for the coalition, it was not, I repeat NOT unconstitutional.
This is the only way the opposition can fight back. Layton’s in Belize, Iggnatief’s in France. They have nothing important to do, apparently.
I hope you’ll be remembering that picture the next time the Layton and Iggy want to form a government without holding an election. Or when the next Liberal government prorogues parliament.
Why is it wrong when the Conservatives do it but not when the Liberals do it? Shouldn’t it be wrong when anyone does it?