The Opposition pushback over Bill
C-38 — driven in part by the Green Party caucus of one, Elizabeth
May — is about far more than political partisanship. It's about
whether Parliament can prevent being pushed into complete irrelevance
by a government which abuses its power. Andrew
Coyne, June 14 2012.
Remember that date
for it is the day that 164 conservative MPs decided that their
allegiance to King Harper and his regime is greater than to their
Country, that their need to satisfy the directives from the PMO is
greater than the need to represent their constituents, that
parliament is just a meaningless charade to be dismissed as
irrelevant. Not one, NOT ONE, conservative MP voted for any of the
100s of amendments, apparently every word and comma is without error
and they have no problem with ANY of the measures contained within
this 452 page bill. That is beyond believability and thus makes them
all 'enemies of the state of Canada'. I repeat ANY MP that voted for
this bill and against all amendments is either brain dead or is an
enemy of the people of Canada and our democratic institutions, care
nothing for the diversity of wildlife, the flora and fauna, the
rivers and oceans that make Canada so special.
That this regimen
then accuses the opposition of 'playing games' in their efforts to
bring further debate and clarity, split it into more acceptable
portions and reduce the egregious elimination of many of our
environmental protection regulations is nothing short of disgusting
and turns my stomach.
Andrew has this to
say in his article:-
For the first time since the last
election, the opposition is putting up a serious fight against the
abuses this government has visited upon Parliament: not only the
omnibus bill – which repeals, amends or introduces more than 60
pieces of legislation – but the repeated, almost routine curtailing
of debate by means of time allocation; the failures of oversight,
misstating of costs, and abdication of responsibility in the F-35
purchase; and the refusal to provide basic information on spending to
Parliament or the Parliamentary Budget Officer – to say nothing of
the stonewalling, prorogations and other indignities of the minority
years.
It should be noted it is not only
the opposition’s interests that are being defended here. It is
Parliament’s. Were MPs on the government side more mindful of their
responsibilities, they would be as vigilant in its defence as the
opposition. So while there is a strong element of
partisanship in all this, there is also a vital question of
principle; though the opposition parties may be accused of past
acquiescence or even participation in some of the abuses of which
they now complain, that does not preclude them from discovering their
backbones now...............
Certainly it would be hard to argue
the Conservatives paid much of a price for their past misdeeds: given
a chance to punish them at the last election, the public instead
returned them with a majority. Little wonder that the finance
minister is already advertising his intent to bring forth another
omnibus bill in the fall. The precedents thus set, we can
look forward to a future in which Parliament would be reduced to two
votes of consequence per year – one to rubber-stamp the
government’s spring agenda, a second to cover the fall.
That last bit says it all, this is what
our democracy has come to, a chance to place a vote via an abused and
unrepresentative system once in a while for a local candidate who
when elected will follow the instructions of a handful of ideologues
who have delusions of wielding absolute power over all Canadians.
That my friends is not democracy, that is at best is an Oligarchy and
leaning very heavily towards a Dictatorship.
I am forced once again to point out
that irregardless of whether you agree or disagree with the policies
of a particular government so long as the systems of democracy remain
in place then citizens and their representatives have a means to
effect change. Once those systems are destroyed it becomes a much
harder thing to accomplish, as is seen daily in certain eastern
countries. This regimen is systematically ignoring, abusing and
destroying our parliamentary rules and traditions, I just hope there
is enough left by the time they are done to salvage. Wake up Canada
your democracy has been stolen whilst you were sleeping.
This is a time of grief and
mourning for anyone who has a sense of the act of vandalism known as
#C38.
The loss and pain is keen. #cdnpoli
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