I’m beginning to appreciate the serious price to be paid for Stephen Harper’s decison to close down Parliament for two months: an entire division of pundits, robbed of anything else to do, is forced into ruminations on cabinet shuffles, election dates and the threat to democracy represented by MPs having to spend every afternoon in their office instead of insulting one another at Question Period.
This happens during any lengthy break, but what’s unique to this particular suspension is the notion that democracy itself is under threat. It’s not just that MPs have nothing to do, but that Harper made them have nothing to do. They could still be on their feet assailing him about his personal involvement in the torture of innocent young Afghan males if he hadn’t pulled the rug out. Who is the Prime Minister, after all, to decide when and where fellow parliamentarians can accuse him of complicity in torture?
An undercurrent to this argument is the theme of Harper as the power-mad centralizer of executive authority. The PMO, we’ve been told, has sent off mandate letters spelling out to cabinet members what will be expected of them when regular business resumes. These mandate letters are said to be extremely detailed, and restrictive in their contents: They establish priorities and set goals members of cabinet will be expected to meet. They make clear that any freelancing of personal agendas will not be tolerated, and indicate that the bar on unapproved expenditures will be set just above the level of an ant-hill. As in: Don’t ask for money, because you won’t get it.
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What a ridiculous column. Parliamentary government — and the author of the article should be reminded that is, officially anyhow, the form of government in this country — isn’t founded or even legitimised by efficacy. The PM is not elected directly: he is only primus inter pares, or should be, and if he is playing a much bigger role than that, it is something to be lamented not lauded. We are all diminished by the undermining of the parliamentary system. Our political system is rooted in centuries od development where the roles of the PM and the cabinet, as well as the individual members of the Commons, are all important to the maintenance of representative government. Democracy was never meant to be more efficient than any other form of governance. It is supposed to be about effective representation by duly elected, free-thinking and free-speaking individuals.
And before all the Harper-ites start huffing and puffing, I am very much aware of what the Liberals have done since the 1960s when Trudeau was PM. That just does not matter, though, because the current gang promised to be different. Unless I missed something about its advocacy of parliamentary reform, the Conservative Partry never listed autocracy as a plank in their campaign platform.
MP’s have nothing to do? Maybe her Liberal and NDP bosses have nothing to do, but the government is still working.
it looks to me like the Prime Minister and his cabinent ministers are working hard. This whole non story of prorogation was an effort to move the polls. The National Press Gallery do not care to print the truth.
Has Stephen Harper even taken a vacation with his family since becoming Prime Minister? Other than the weekend at Harrington Lake?
Cuncator: No other PM in my lifetime has had to govern in the environment that PMSH has to navigate. Not even close.
If there is any justice in this world,these reporters who keep attacking the PM will be shown up for what they are ,a bunch of idiots. I cannot believe that someone is not ordering them to write this crap.Their story lines are always identical and so obviously biased that only a child could not see through them..Someday we will find out and maybe a few of them will be jailed.
Cunctator you seem to mistake activity for progress. The biggest problem in Canada for the past few decades is that politicians think they have to get busy intruding into the lives of its citizens at every turn. That somehow a bunch of clowns in Parliament have greater knowledge than its citizens as to how to run their lives. The nanny state. Frankly the less time Parliament is in session, probably the better the country will run. And that goes for any level of government that fills its time figuring out how to interfere in individuals lives.
I wonder whether any Prime Minister has had to deal with a party that is known for theft and lies, another that openly is tied to Comunists/Leftists and the final party that openly advocates for the destruction of Canada. The Green are a bad joke and that’s about where they come in.
Can YOU imagine trying to govern when this is what you are up against on a daily basis?
Well Pat, there’s Mulroney and his $300,000 Schrieber pay out and then of course, there is the Quebec Nation who will never be satisfied until they leave. Good riddance to both I say.
So much misinformation, confusion, lies. Canada desperately needs our own version of FOX News network. Sure the EI offices would soon be filled with former and now unemployed CBC/CTV employees…..oh well they had their kick at the cat and blew it big time. Fat chance of that every happening though, China’s got the Great Wall…..Canada’s got the CRTC.
Been…we have enough slanted news reporting without adding Fox to the mix. The best Canadians can do is to listen to both the left, centre and right news media and arrive at their own conclusions.
Certainly, news sites similar to Jack’s can help where there are many good bloggers like Stageleft, Sandy, Cynapse etc and the excellent verbal engagements that come out of here.
Thanks Jack,
UV you do realize that the Mulroney payout happened after Mulroney was out of office and netted Scheiber nothing don’t you? If I were to question Mulroney’s finances after he left office I would have to question Chretien and Martin’s finances before and after they were in office.
So far there has been only one party that gave taxpayer’s money for phony invoices for padding the pockets of the party and the party’s money men and that party is now in opposition.
Your right Joe and thats probably whats turning so many Canadians off federal politics – ‘their all the same’ is what I hear much of the time with deficits, flip-flops, patronage appointments, scandals, Quebec favortism, prorogations, HST, MPs who are told how to vote etc
No UV what is a real turn off is the lack of discernment. Crooks like Chretien who robbed the national treasury are treated the same as some private citizen who took an cash retainer fee.
It’s part and parcel of the MSM’s coverage that gives the opinion that they’re all the same. If they can’t tar the Conservatives with the same brush that they grudgingly tarred the Liberals with, then any sane person wouldn’t trust the Liberals any further than they could throw them. But if they can make the commonly used expression of “they’re all the same” wash then the Liberals are half way home. Makes me want to hurl every time I hear it.
I’m amazed how many people think that Government is Question Period. That without the frigging Gong Show, there’s no Government in power. Remarkable that!