A prorogation rally on Parliament Hill. Photo Credit: Sean Kilpatrick, CP

In all the excitement about prorogation it has become fairly obvious that the vast majority of the Canadian public—present company included—don’t know much about what it actually is. Normally, I use this space to share my opinion, but this time I will preface it with something a little less subjective. Today I would like to present a brief prorogation primer, with a few personal opinions tossed in for good measure.

The fine folks at the Table Research Branch of the House of Commons maintain the House of Commons Compendium, an excellent source of information on how the House and its committees work. If you visit their web page discussing the Parliamentary Cycle, you will find this simple introduction:

“A Parliament is summoned following a general election and continues to exist until it is dissolved (ended) by a proclamation of the Governor General at the request of the Prime Minister. This is followed by another general election. The Constitution sets the maximum lifespan of a Parliament at five years; however, recent changes to the Canada Elections Act provide for fixed date elections every four years.

Each Parliament is made up of one or more sessions, each consisting of a number of separate sittings (meetings), separated by periods of adjournment. Each session, except the final one, ends when Parliament is prorogued by the Governor General. The final session ends with the dissolution of Parliament and the calling of a general election.”

So you see, dear readers, prorogation is not the rare beast that some people believe it to be. It is constitutionally valid and is not morally dubious in and of itself. In fact, Parliament has been prorogued over 100 times. Still though, we are unfamiliar with it and because of that, it makes us a bit edgy. In a perfect world, all Canadians would take a mandatory high school civics class – anything the school system ever taught me about our government is long gone. Yes, the topic can be dry, but so is algebra and they made us learn that too.
(more…)

Photo Credit: mirror.co.uk

It is unfortunate that it takes a natural disaster like the earthquake in Haiti for the international community to come together. Perhaps if there were more natural disasters caused by global warming there would have been more accomplished in Copenhagen at the most recent summit on climate change. It seems a growing trend in international politics is to only react when there is a disaster. There seems to be no thought invested in preventing the disaster. Not that an earthquake can be prevented, but global warming can be. And although I am using a horrible tragedy to shamelessly discuss global warming, the prospect of global warming happening could wipe out most of the northern hemisphere. Is there a plan in place to deal with that kind of tragedy? Is there a plan in place to deal with the billions of displaced people suddenly clamoring into the South? I doubt it. We will be just that, clamoring on in, busting over the Rio Grande.
(more…)

Galbraith & Kennedy: A chance encounter that almost changed the course of history? Photo Credit: CBC-TV

President John F. Kennedy has been dead for nearly 50 years. Yet his memory still shines brightly for many people. This is in large part because he was an attractive, charismatic leader in his day and because he did not grow old with us. Despite numerous attempts by revisionist historians to disparage his reputation, there are huge numbers of people around the world who still hold him in high esteem. Although tarnished slightly, for the general public, JFK’s place among the pantheon of American heroes is secure.

In my view, John F. Kennedy was in some ways a mediocre President. His pursuit of lascivious pleasures and his opinion of the opposite sex would have risked huge embarrassment in today’s politically correct culture. His legislative record of passing laws was dismal. His domestic policies were often not as brilliant and as progressive as our faulty memories would suggest. In the private arena of the White House, he was not always the calm, well-mannered individual his spin doctors made him out to be.
(more…)

Photo Credit: Vancouver Coastal Health

Lost in the shuffle amid the recent tragedy in Haiti, parliamentary drama and growing Olympic fever, a recent B.C. Court of Appeal ruling stands to reshape the way the Canadian legal system deals with addiction. On January 15, 2010 the Court of Appeal for British Columbia dismissed a federal government appeal to close InSite, Canada’s only supervised safe-injection site. The federal government is widely expected to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada, opening the door for a new approach towards Canadian policy in dealing with addiction and substance abuse.

In the 87 page ruling, Justice Huddart wrote that the court dismissed the federal government’s appeal “by reason of the application of the doctrine of interjurisdictional immunity”, which prevents a law from being applied outside of its constitutional jurisdiction. With health care professionals, academics, and courts recognizing InSite as a provider of legitimate health-care services – an area of provincial jurisdiction – the Court of Appeal found that federal drug laws prohibiting the possession of controlled substances were constitutionally unable to override the application of provincial health-care programs. The Court felt that attempts by the federal government to close InSite were an “indisputable intrusion of the federal government into the provision of medical services”.
(more…)

Depends on the tune - Photo Credit: Global News

HCBAX9NPSJB8 It is a truism that the Conservative’s base votes. When it comes to the nitty gritty hardship of going all the way to that local community building and making an X, the core supporters of said party are never apathetic (except arguably about what the Conservatives are doing).

The base on the Left? What base on the left? There may be a few who remember the union-championing roots of the NDP and never sway from supporting said party. There are certainly some environmental activists who swear to vote Green all Green and nothing but Green so help them Mother Earth. What is the Liberal core, and really how can either of the other two (the Greens are actually rather right when it comes to social policy but we’ll play the perception here) ever expect to match the one recognized haven for the socially conservative vote, especially given that despite enacted policy the Conservative Party also manages to cling to the illusion of fiscal conservativism?
(more…)

Shuffle as you will, we know the joker is still on top.
Photo Credit: Bartmaha

Firstly let us recall that the small government-touting Conservatives have gone from a twenty-seven member cabinet, a “smaller Cabinet and more streamlined Cabinet structure… designed for work—not for show” (Stephen Harper), to their current thirty-eight member (awkward and showy?) cabinet.

Secondly, let us take a look at the January nineteenth’s move of Lisa Raitt from her position as Minister of Natural Resources.

Taking a controversial minister away from the position of being in charge of our nuclear plants seems like a no-brainer, especially when she finds medical isotope shortages to be “sexy”.

Speaking of no-brainers; let’s make her the … drum roll please … Labour Minister. Real smart. Please someone explain why she is still a minister at all?
(more…)

The must-have accessory for Canadian voters.

Dear Canadian Politician,

I am an average voter, quietly paying my taxes and trying to get through the recession. I have voted in almost every election – federal, provincial and municipal – for which I was eligible. Politics is kind of a passion for me and I worry that many of my contemporaries are completely uninterested in what you (and their tax dollars) are doing in Ottawa. In spite of my own interest in politics, I hope that we are not subjected to a federal election any time soon. It is not that I totally approve of the minority government’s performance. Voting for any of you right now would require the largest clothespin my nose could accommodate and I don’t know that it could stand the pinch.

Prime Minister Harper, with the consent of the Governor General, recently made the decision to prorogue Parliament until March. In spite of vigorous hand wringing by the opposing parties and the media, half of Canadians do not care. The other half might care but realize there is nothing to be done about it. Some say that Canadians are lazy and apathetic; they simply do not care about politics or voting. I think that the truth is more depressing. The average voter is just tired of the scandals, failures, in-fighting, pork-barreling, sniping and naked self-interest of most career politicians, regardless of political stripe. We are overcome with the futility of it all, sick of watching the same old game show. We’ve tuned you out until there’s a programming change.
(more…)

Conservative Policy Discussion

I am going to steer away from prorogation for a moment here and bring up some old but interesting points. Perhaps the following can be seen as being applicable to that issue, I leave that to the reader.

Populism=Anti-intellectualism.

I do not intend to engage in a debate about proper criminal justice policy. I intend to prove that Stephen Harper and his Conservatives adopt a position of Anti-intellectualism.

Anti-intellectualism is an ignorant position. Either the Conservative leaders are ignorant or they intentionally champion ignorance. We’ll assume that the Conservative Party knows anti-intellectualism is ignorant. The only logical explanation for a political party’s intentional championing of ignorant policy is to garner votes. The Conservative party champions ignorant policy to garner votes. The Conservative Party banks on voters’ ignorance.
(more…)

Photo Credit: Toronto Star

The coming year will be integral to the rebuilding of Canada’s international image. Regardless of one’s views concerning the Copenhagen climate summit, it is unarguable that Canada’s position in the world has been damaged due to it. The perceived image of Stephen Harper’s government put forward by the majority of the international press was overwhelmingly negative. More importantly, it was seen as a fall from grace by a country popularly looked upon as America’s more liberal, and green, cousin, particularly in Europe.

I recently attended an orientation for a job at the 2010 Winter Olympics. As expected, one of the central themes was the history and tradition of the Olympic Games, from their beginnings in ancient Greece to the global brand of the new millennium. However, it was one particular aspect of the presentation that strikes a chord with Canada’s needs coming into 2010. I was informed that the Olympic movement is a celebration of three pillars: Sport, Culture and Sustainability. It is this last pillar that it is necessary for Stephen Harper and the government to grasp in the forthcoming year.
(more…)

The scale of the destruction in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, Thursday January 14, 2010

In the wake of the devastating earthquake that has decimated much of the Caribbean island nation of Haiti, the Canadian government was among the first in the international community to offer immediate assistance and aid.

On January 13, the day after the destructive quake struck, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon and Minister of National Defence Peter McKay outlined Canada’s response to the massive humanitarian crisis that was unfolding by the hour in the beleaguered country.
(more…)