Daily Archive

Let us sent out a  big thanks to the Ontario Swing Voters that brought us this monstrosity known as the Harper Majority Government.  The Omnibus bill is the latest poke at the mouldering corpse that is Canadian Politics.

Debate?  Defence of ideas? Compromise?  Not happening in our House of Commons.  The light at the end of the tunnel is coming though and the French NDP contingent is gnawing at the bit waiting to lead the charge to expel the current plutocrats from power.

“The French chant “2015” started in the upper reaches of the NDP backbench and soon cascaded into a common, desk-thumping chorus just before midnight Thursday in the House of Commons.

The tone from the official Opposition was oddly celebratory, given that they’d just faced 22-plus hours of consecutive spankings by a Conservative majority government voting to protect its omnibus budget bill from hundreds of amendments.

Bill C-38, the sprawling Jobs, Growth and Long-Term Prosperity Act, survived the ordeal untouched and now goes to third and final reading in the Commons on Monday.

The bill — and the literally dozens of significant statutes it comprises on everything from environmental assessments to old age security, employment insurance rules, government contracting and cross-border policing — should clear the Conservative-dominated Senate by the end of next week.”

Of course Bill C-38 was going to pass, like a javelin through the heart of Canadian Democracy.  But we can save hope that things will change as the NDP back bench clearly intoned in the House of Commons.

“Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said as he emerged from the chamber with his budget bill intact.

“We have our view and our view is supported by the mandate we got from the people of Canada last year, so we’re carrying out the mandate that we have — which is about jobs and growth and economic prosperity.”

The majority of Canadians did not vote for you or your mandate Mr.Flaherty, it would be good of you to remember that.  You can  feel the scorn from Conservative benches, actually having to show up and vote on legislation,  having to deal with this nasty messy idea that people should have input into how their country is run.  The nerve of Canadians who clearly do not know their place.”

“Green party leader Elizabeth May was the author of hundreds of the substantive amendments shot down Thursday and one of about a half dozen MPs who didn’t miss a single vote. She said it was far more than “theatrics or … a waste of time.”

“This was democracy,” said May, still feisty and coherent after 22 hours of voting.

“This was parliamentarians stepping up to our obligation and our duty to Canada, to parliament, to the people who sent us here from our constituencies, to behave like parliamentarians.”

“It was a sign that democracy in Canada has a spark of life,” said May. “We found the pulse.”

This was democracy indeed.  The electorate will remember how the Harper Government slapped the democratic process in the face.  Prepare for more jaw dropping, commonsense defying attacks on our environment, labour and the social fabric of our society though because Harper needs to get all the damage done quickly so he can begin sucking up to the Canadian public in time for the 2015 election.