Canadian parliament prorogued again; Part 3

All Hail the Herod of Canada as he toadies to the imperial war machine.  I love it when people have the audacity to say look the other guys was worse.  Cretien was bad, Martin was worse and Harper doesn't fucking care about democracy he only cares about naked power. Yup the lIberals were like that as well but does that somehow excuse Harper?  Of course not especially since he became PM by vilifying the Liberals for being anti-democratic.  Hypocrites deserve every bit of venom that is directed their way.

Yibpl wrote:

Oh, how I love the chattering classes!

How did they react when Jean Chrétien was auctioning off senate seats to the highest bidding geriatric?  They didn’t.  How do they react when only 2 out of 10 provinces and 3 territories have legislations in place to elect senators?  They don’t.  How do they react when  the un-elected Senate blocked the important anti-crime bill C-15? They don’t.  How did they react when unelected Senators, after meeting with well-heeled lobbyists , subverted  important consumer protection legislation passed unanimously in the House of Commons?  They don't.

But how do the chattering classes react when Stephen Harper prorogues Parliament after about a year, when Parliament is normally prorogued about every, you guessed it,  year?     They’re ready to TAKE IT TO THE  STREETS!!!

Lovely!

Let me help you with this, as it is clear the made up Conservative talking points have you confused.

Prorogation is not uncommon - HOWEVER- never before has any government used it to avoid an examintation of its actions.  The closest this ever came was Chretien's desire to flip the receiving of the report on the sponsorship scandal onto Martin.  Notice nothing was stopped, or eroded, or even delayed.

Never before has prorogation been done so far in advance of the next sitting of the House.  This move is unprecedented.  We are in uncharted waters here, comparing it to anything in the past is simply an attempt to mislead.

Prorogation in the modern era does not happen annually, well not until Harper decided to avoid Lord Durham's promise of responsible government.  In the past the rules of the House were different around setting the Parliamentary Calendar.  Those new rules were brought in specifically to avoid such routine proroguing of the House and all the complications it means for committees and so on.

Quote:

 And it has not been used to this effect by a minority PM before (and that is significant because Harper cannot control the house).

I think this is one of the key points. If Parliament had the ability to prorogue itself, Harper would not have been able to have done so. Although Chretien had phony majority governments (less than 1/2 the popular votes), he did have a majority of MPs. 

Conservative MP Brent Rathgeber gives a comment:

"Democracy and Parliament are not being sidestepped - they are only being suspended."

http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/01/07/how-democracy-in-canada-is-like-gilbert-arenas/

 

followed by the inevitable clarification:

 

must clarify---Parliament is being suspended--democracy is much larger and much broader and of course continues everyday in Canada http://twitter.com/brentrathgeber/status/7505713615

kropotkin1951 wrote:

All Hail the Herod of Canada as he toadies to the imperial war machine.

 

Here Here!!