Stephen Lautens, Calgary Sun Columnist, 22 February, 2010

I’ve often thought about public attitudes towards government and politics, and how recent events in Ottawa have further brought the public faith of government into disrepute.
It strikes me this government, more than most others, has treated our democratic and parliamentary institutions with disrespect, if not outright contempt.
I’m not surprised, because they showed the same contempt for government before they were elected.
In a word, Harper’s government treats government like it is the problem. In other words, he’s his own worst enemy.
It was an article of faith of both the Reform party and the hard-right Conservatives that government is bad, small government is not quite as bad, and democracy is best fine-tuned with a sledgehammer.
Not to sound like a Grade 9 civics class, but since the 1600s, Parliament has been the government.
Not the prime minister, not his cabinet, not his political party — Parliament, which includes Opposition MPs.
When allowed to function, it guarantees responsibility, accountability and transparency.

Read the full article here….

This morning, 10 February, 2010, the FaceBook group, “Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament” passed the quarter million mark.  Canadians from all political parties, and those with no political affiliation, are showing their commitment to Canada and democracy.

The issue is NOT about using the parliamentary tool to prorogue, but rather how and why it has been used by the Federal Government twice in the past 13 months.

Take a look at the conversation, click here

BTW, do you know where your MP is today?

Haroon Siddiqui, 07 Feb. 2010
“Canadians worried about what Stephen Harper might do if he were to have a majority should look at what he’s doing to Canada’s leading human rights agency.

To recap the scandal at Montreal-based Rights and Democracy:…”

Read the full article, click here

From the Facebook page: Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament

Muzzled MPs. A powerless cabinet. Politicized senior bureaucrats. Unaccountable parties. Canada’s democracy is in trouble. To fix it we have to connect the dots
James Travers, Toronto Star, Apr 04, 2009

http://www.thestar.com/News/Insight/article/613535

Excerpt: Good for prime ministers, that’s not nearly good enough for the rest of us. It fuels an inexorable power drift to the opaque political centre, creating what Donald Savoie, Canada’s eminent chronicler of Westminster parliaments, calls "court government." It’s his clear and credible view that between elections, prime ministers now operate in the omnipotent manner of kings. Surrounded by subservient cabinet barons, fawning unelected courtiers and answerable to no one, they manage the affairs of state more or less as they please.

Prime ministers are freeing themselves from the chains that once bound them to voters, Parliament, cabinet and party. From bottom to top, from citizen to head of state, every link in those chains is stressed, fractured or broken.

Excerpt: Appealing as it sounds, advocacy requires effort. It’s so much easier to go with the flow, to let situational democracy evolve with each reflex, stopgap, jerry-rigged response to every new policy demand and political threat. But that leads away from accountability and toward the Big Man culture that Africa is finally throwing off and has no place in Canada.

If war is too serious to leave to generals, then surely democracy is too important to delegate to politicians.