Harper is guilty of a greater crime
Posted: Sat Sep 12, 2015 8:14 pmHarper is guilty of a greater crime
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Posted: Wednesday, September 9, 2015 5:00 am Allan Rankin | 0 comments
Until now I have resisted writing about the alleged misdeeds of Senator Mike Duffy, perhaps because I worked for six years in Ottawa as a policy advisor to another, far more ethical and honourable Prince Edward Island Senator, but also because the whole sordid mess is rather depressing.
Not long after I began working on the Hill, the new Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Official Opposition requested to meet with the Senate Committee for Legal and Constitutional Affairs, which at the time was studying various constitutional issues.
I wanted to see this new political leader from the west in action, and so I slipped into the committee room to watch.
What I witnessed was the most arrogant, dismissive, and disrespectful performance by a politician in my lifetime.
Mr Harper outlined his own party’s agenda for change in a forceful manner. However, he spoke to the Senators in the room, including parliamentary giants Lowell Murray and Serge Joyal, as if they were children.
That brief encounter with the man who would become Canada’s 22nd prime minister shook my political rafters, and it conveyed a clear message that while Ontario and Quebec were to be placated in a Harper government, only western Canada really mattered, and federalism as we had come to know it, was soon to be an antiquated concept.
Harper scoffed at, and openly challenged, the appointed Senators to oppose his proposed reforms.
Our federal system only functions effectively when the central government and the provinces act in concert with one another, at times sharing jurisdictional authority, and always working together for the benefit of all citizens.
By this definition Stephen Harper is not a federalist. He has shown little interest in cooperative federalism, and federal-provincial-territorial meetings of first ministers have become a thing of the past.
Moreover, Mr Harper has shown little respect for the institutions that shape and govern our democracy. His abuse of parliament in the form of omnibus legislation, limited debate, and rule bending is well known, and his shameful disrespect for the Supreme Court is unprecedented in the federal political life of our country.
- - - SNIP - - -
From the day Stephen Harper took office, his respect for the institutions and traditions of our parliamentary democracy has taken a back seat to his own political ambitions and ideology.
This is a greater crime against the country than anything Mike Duffy has done.
[ http://www.peicanada.com/eastern_graphi ... Q.facebook ]
Posted: Wednesday, September 9, 2015 5:00 am Allan Rankin | 0 comments
Until now I have resisted writing about the alleged misdeeds of Senator Mike Duffy, perhaps because I worked for six years in Ottawa as a policy advisor to another, far more ethical and honourable Prince Edward Island Senator, but also because the whole sordid mess is rather depressing.
Not long after I began working on the Hill, the new Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Official Opposition requested to meet with the Senate Committee for Legal and Constitutional Affairs, which at the time was studying various constitutional issues.
I wanted to see this new political leader from the west in action, and so I slipped into the committee room to watch.
What I witnessed was the most arrogant, dismissive, and disrespectful performance by a politician in my lifetime.
Mr Harper outlined his own party’s agenda for change in a forceful manner. However, he spoke to the Senators in the room, including parliamentary giants Lowell Murray and Serge Joyal, as if they were children.
That brief encounter with the man who would become Canada’s 22nd prime minister shook my political rafters, and it conveyed a clear message that while Ontario and Quebec were to be placated in a Harper government, only western Canada really mattered, and federalism as we had come to know it, was soon to be an antiquated concept.
Harper scoffed at, and openly challenged, the appointed Senators to oppose his proposed reforms.
Our federal system only functions effectively when the central government and the provinces act in concert with one another, at times sharing jurisdictional authority, and always working together for the benefit of all citizens.
By this definition Stephen Harper is not a federalist. He has shown little interest in cooperative federalism, and federal-provincial-territorial meetings of first ministers have become a thing of the past.
Moreover, Mr Harper has shown little respect for the institutions that shape and govern our democracy. His abuse of parliament in the form of omnibus legislation, limited debate, and rule bending is well known, and his shameful disrespect for the Supreme Court is unprecedented in the federal political life of our country.
- - - SNIP - - -
From the day Stephen Harper took office, his respect for the institutions and traditions of our parliamentary democracy has taken a back seat to his own political ambitions and ideology.
This is a greater crime against the country than anything Mike Duffy has done.