Keep meeting

This is posted from a comment by Eric Finley to a post at pogge.ca. 
This action would demonstrate that opposition to Stephen Harper and to
the events of the last week isn’t just some fleeting, momentary
frustration. And it would demonstrate that objection to today’s
decision is based on both serious concern for our democracy and for the
urgency of the occasion. Please give it your consideration and feel
free to leave your comments below.

Keep meeting.

To the coalition: Keep meeting.

Parliament has been prorogued. So you’re not meeting in an official capacity. But nonetheless meet as if you were not prorogued.

Find a site. Pay for it yourselves, and be explicit about that.
You’re citizens meeting to speak. But in so doing, keep up the business
of Parliament. Debate. Draft bills. Hold (unofficial) committee
meetings. Vote… on memoranda of understanding.

Show the country, its citizens, and its investors that while you do
not argue with the legality of the delay, you see no need to go on
vacation in this crucial economic time. Assume (without even explicitly
saying it) that in January when Parliament reconvenes, Harper will
fall, the coalition will form government, and the memoranda of
understanding and drafted bills will be dealt with, bang-bang-bang,
because you have already hashed this out.

Invite the Conservatives to join you. If you get some momentum, you
might get no few disgruntled members willing to bet that Harper’s fury
will not control their lives.

Let the Conservatives take an extended vactation. Shrink the
proposed vacation period instead, to mark the severity of the economic
need.

Make it plain that you do not dispute Her Excellency’s right to
consent to her nominal first minister’s request to prorogue, and that
you respect her for making a difficult decision in uncharted waters.
Open each session with a consistent, well-crafted adaptation of
protocol which is sufficiently distinct that it does not trespass upon
Parliament’s formal privileges… but that nonetheless shows clearly
that you do this out of the uttermost respect for the Queen, the
Governor General, and the Canadian people.

Repeat frequently that you’re just trying to get work done now, so
that things can happen fast when the doors unlock in January. It can’t
be trespass upon the privileges of government if its level of formality
is that of a caucus meeting.

Be completely transparent. Defeat the smoke-filled rooms meme. Heck, hold it in a bar, if you can find one big enough.

The media will come to you. I can think of no more efficient way to
stretch your advertising dollars than a bold, newsworthy stroke like
this.

If you do this, I will donate to the limit of my ability. I will
write letters to the editor praising your actions. I will take my four
children and go door to door. In Edmonton. In December.

Pass it on.

KEEP MEETING.

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Bernadette Wagner

Regina Bernadette Wagner is an award-winning writer, a community activist and a singer. Her work has been published in newspapers, magazines, chapbooks and anthologies, on radio, television,...