Today was a perfect illustration why Mr. Ignatieff will never be Prime Minister of Canada. As for me, I am very frustrated by the outrageousness of the Harper government, but I think I am even more frustrated by the total inaction of the Liberal Opposition. Today the Conservative government of Canada announced that they will refuse to abide by an order of Parliament, an almost unprecedented action in the British Parliamentary system. And what did the Liberals do? Well . . . . . absolutely nothing! Any competent opposition would have been all over the news today, everywhere we looked we should have seen Ignatieff carrying on about this. He should have had major news conference explaining to people just how important it is for a government to ignore an order of parliament. He should have been pointing out to people that if the government can ignore an order of parliament it means we live in a dictatorship. He should have done media interviews demonstrating what he is going to do to save Canadian democracy. He should have already filed an injunction demanding full disclosure. Instead he decided to do absolutely nothing. All we saw on the news today was Stockwell Day. This has been the MO of the LPC for years now, let the conservatives do anything they want and expect that the people will protest and move naturally back to the Liberals. Well it AIN'T going to happen that way Mr. Ignatieff! Being in opposition means you actually have to do something! You have to be proactive and go after the Government in any way that you can instead of sitting there looking foolish.
Anyone who thinks that Ignatieff is going to be the next Prime Minister is dreaming in technicolor.
1 comment:
An injunction likely wouldn't be appropriate. No court has jurisdiction over the workings of Parliament, except in the cases where Parliament violates the Constitution (particularly the Charter) in some way. (Then the SCC does have jurisdiction.)
What Ignatieff -- or someone -- needs to do is introduce a motion to hold the government in contempt of Parliament. If that passes -- and it should -- then the House can order the police to seize the necessary documents from the government. Unfortunately, the House is in recess until late January -- I'm not clear whether, procedurally, such a motion could have been introduced in time before the recess, but I'm guessing not.
I fully expect an insane deluge of Conservative propaganda, like we saw in late 2008.
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