10:10 sunrise
15:56 sunset
Cartoon by Doug Rogers
So angry. Stephen Harper treats, as one blogger has said, Parliament like his own personal plaything. He has once again prorogued parliament (a word I wish did not enter my vocabularly last year) and won't reconvene it until after the Olympics. Oh sure, this is one way to avoid having to continue with the parliamentary committee investigating the Afganistan detainee issue, but this prorogation is practically tyrannical. Who does this man think he is and why oh why aren't more Canadians angry about how he runs our government? When he wants to get something done and it doesn't seem to come easily from within the legislature, he just ignores the sytem and shuts it down.
Prorogation is generally done for the purpose of calling an election. Doing so leaves all legislation in progress to die on the order paper and all the committees of Parliament to be dissloved. Harper's reason for this: a sporting event in Vancouver. Don't get me wrong, I am happy to see the death of at least two bills: C-43 which deals with conditional sentencing and C-15 which deals with mandatory minimum sentences. Even if you like Harper, you must agree that killing 30+ pieces of his own legislation, is a massive waste of taxpayer time and money.
As Andrew Coyne writes (and I cannot believe I am on team Andrew Coyne here) "In what other democracy is it permissible for the government of the day to hide from the legislature for months at a time? To ignore explicit parliamentary votes demanding the production of documents? To stonewall independent inquiries? Perhaps the rules allow it elsewhere, but is it the practice? Does convention not still forbid it? Is it not viewed in other countries as dictatorial behaviour, and therefore, you know … not done?"
I know that Harper is allowed to do this, but it just seems so childish, so spoiled-brat like. He doesn't like how the game is going so he takes all of his marbles and goes home. Stay and face the music, buddy, after all, opinion polls still seem to favour you as most likely to win another election.
Grr. Happy new year. I'd like Santa to bring me a new government soon, please.
Prorogation is generally done for the purpose of calling an election. Doing so leaves all legislation in progress to die on the order paper and all the committees of Parliament to be dissloved. Harper's reason for this: a sporting event in Vancouver. Don't get me wrong, I am happy to see the death of at least two bills: C-43 which deals with conditional sentencing and C-15 which deals with mandatory minimum sentences. Even if you like Harper, you must agree that killing 30+ pieces of his own legislation, is a massive waste of taxpayer time and money.
As Andrew Coyne writes (and I cannot believe I am on team Andrew Coyne here) "In what other democracy is it permissible for the government of the day to hide from the legislature for months at a time? To ignore explicit parliamentary votes demanding the production of documents? To stonewall independent inquiries? Perhaps the rules allow it elsewhere, but is it the practice? Does convention not still forbid it? Is it not viewed in other countries as dictatorial behaviour, and therefore, you know … not done?"
I know that Harper is allowed to do this, but it just seems so childish, so spoiled-brat like. He doesn't like how the game is going so he takes all of his marbles and goes home. Stay and face the music, buddy, after all, opinion polls still seem to favour you as most likely to win another election.
Grr. Happy new year. I'd like Santa to bring me a new government soon, please.
