I think we officially need to change our Social Studies curricula to start instructing students on how democracy doesn’t exist in Canada.
Rumours swirling around Ottawa suggest the Conservative government is thinking of shutting down Parliament until after the Olympics, killing some of its own bills but also ending the discussion of Afghan detainees that is nibbling away at Tory popularity.
Remember a year ago when Harper avoided losing his job by locking the doors on parliament? Of note this time is this point:
But opposition members of the Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan have asked to hold special meetings before the session resumes. Among other high-profile witnesses, they want Defence Minister Peter MacKay and his predecessor, Gordon O’Connor, to return for more interrogation about what they knew of the torture allegations. The committee could not sit during prorogation. [emphasis added]
This is all still rumour speculation, but it’s still a bitter irony that the party that won on accountability could close down government, again, to avoid having to answer to the House of Commons.
Contempt of Parliament? More like contempt of democracy.
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And one has to wonder what would happen to Harper’s popularity if he did prorogue again? Because if recent history is any indication, he would go up in the polls. I suspect we have reached a similar state of affairs that obtained during the early thirties and gave rise to fascism. There is just the perfect storm of fear and cynicism to let really nasty strong-arm tactics work. And Harper’s strategy from the beginning has surely been in part to be just nasty enough to create alienation and cynicism in many voters so that they will just turn off from the process. I may be wrong but i put it to you that another bogus prorogation could be spun to give Harper even higher poll numbers.
Probably sad but true. I’m just surprised he hasn’t started pumping up the Islamophobia like some European leaders.