Posted on 05/16/2005 8:05:38 AM PDT by GMMAC
Time to drink up and go home:
Liberals ignore the obvious like a belligerent drunk after closing
The Edmonton Journal
Sun 15 May 2005
Page: A14
Section: Opinion
Byline: Lorne Gunter
Faithful readers of this column will know I have been cool to the idea of the Conservatives pulling the plug on Parliament sooner rather than later.
But my concerns against doing so have all been strategic. This week, however, the Liberals lost the constitutional right to govern. They remain in power in violation of the principles that govern our particular brand of democracy -- Westminster parliamentary. Each day they govern, each additional tax dollar they spend they do so in violation of our Constitution.
They should not still be in office. They ought not to be permitted to stay there even one more day. And if, through a combination of their own supreme arrogance, ghoulish calculations about the strength of cancer-stricken opposition members and contempt for our constitution, they manage to survive Thursday's budget vote, they will have managed to destroy 300 years of constitutional precedent for the sake of propping themselves up in office a few more weeks or months.
I have until now cautioned against an early election because I was not sure the opposition could win it. I'm still not: The Liberals remain strong enough in Ontario to stage another scare-driven revival in the final days of a campaign and cling to power.
The Conservatives have failed to articulate any positive reasons why voters disgusted with the Liberals should switch to them. They've generated plenty of negative reasons -- all of which essentially boil down to the Grits being too sleazy and untrustworthy to govern -- which are excellent arguments for bouncing this government. But the lack of a go-forward platform has meant the Conservatives have failed to rise up in popular support as fast as the Liberals have fallen.
Until now, I have counselled that it would be better to wait two, three, six months while they firm up popular support and hone a positive platform until there is almost no chance of a last-minute Liberal comeback. Besides, I think there is plenty more damage coming the Liberals' way from Gomery and elsewhere.
Until this week, I have seen no need to hurry.
No longer.
The Grits must be turfed from office immediately. Indeed, by nearly any discernable constitutional standard applicable in Canada, they have already been turfed, but like a belligerent drunk after closing, they refuse to go peaceably.
The procedural wrangling in Parliament this week may seem arcane to most people. On the surface, it might even appear trivial. But it goes to the core of Canada's brand of responsible government.
Say for a minute the Libs are right, Tuesday's vote on a Conservative motion was nothing more than a procedural matter. For sure it wasn't your standard non-confidence motion. Those motions say, in effect: "This House no longer has confidence in this government."
On Tuesday, the Conservatives managed to win a vote asking a committee of Parliament to tell the government to step aside -- not quite the same impact.
Andrew Heard, probably Canada's foremost expert on constitutional conventions said, "One could not vote for the motion without agreeing that the government should resign, which is the essence of a non-confidence vote."
The Conservatives, with help from the Bloc, followed this up by moving adjournment of the House or preventing the government from reopening it for three days in a row.
Again, superficially trivial. Game-playing with rules. Meaningless to most people.
Except it's not meaningless.
In Westminster-style democracies such as ours, the government is given tremendous power, more power than most other forms of democratically elected governments. It retains that power, though, only so long as it clearly commands the approval of a majority of the people's elected representatives.
The ability to open and close Parliament's daily business at times of its choosing -- not the opposition's -- has always been considered one of the most fundamental proofs that our all-powerful governments are still wielding power with the approval of the people's representatives.
If they cannot control the House of Commons enough just to make it convene or make it sit to the end of the day, then they have lost both the moral and constitutional legitimacy to govern until they prove they have the confidence of Parliament. To prove they have that confidence, they must immediately -- before any other business -- call for and survive a direct motion of confidence. They cannot wait nine days as this government is doing.
But I suspect the Liberals already know they're toast. They might be hoping that by waiting more than a week they can outlast the sick Conservative MPs and somehow survive Thursday's budget vote. But I suspect they think they'll lose that vote too.
Instead, they are holding on so they can be defeated on their goody-filled budget rather than on a Conservative motion highlighting their scandals. Then they can run the ensuing campaign under the banner of their budget rather than under a cloud of corruption.
Whatever their reasoning, their behaviour is galling.
Lorne Gunter
Columnist/Editorial Writer, National Post
Columnist, Edmonton Journal
Tele: (780) 916-0719 ~ E-mail:lgunter@shaw.ca
Good analogy. The bar has turned up all the lights, the chairs are being put on the table and bartender has said you don't have to go home but you can't stay here.
Wow, how do we get one of those "disband" clauses in our constitutuion!
And he did. [ba dum-bum]
This is what concerns me the most.
We have to articulate a positive vision for Canada.
This says it all. Politics in Canaa are like race or religion. You are born into a political family and you vote for that party, no matter the consequences. You don't show disloyalty by switching votes for another party. No matter how bad your party is in Canada, the other parties are always, by definition, worse. The Liberals could practice human sacrifice and no Liberal supporter would object. Do do so would be culturally insensitive or hateful. It's for the common good. To be against it would make you selfish and a bad person. That's the way Liberal party supporters think in Ontario.
We`ve become a Banana-Republic.
If the socialist Liberal party wins the budget vote on May 20th,all is lost and it signals to the socialists that anything goes.Kickbacks,skimming,stealing tax payer dollars,bribery,corruption,will all be legal.But only for members of the socialist Liberal party.
Woe to Ontario.....my home province.
It sucks.
We need a western revolution here.
As stated the liberaces will indeed win again largely
thanks to the disgusting voting preferences of my fellow
Ontarions. Who do we have to thank for that?
I will tell you. Ma and Pa kettle who are largely
seniors blinded by the red liberals and thinking they
can do no wrong, Immigrants who have been given the
world by Ontario when it comes to immigration, jobs
and security and last but not least the Quebec sympathy vote.
Ontario is one of the most multicultural patterned blankets
you will find anywhere and they will be out in full force
come election day...but you know what....nothing much
would really change no matter who is governing...conservatives or liberal.
This Quebec issue has to be put to bed once and for all.
The Kyoto accord must be scrapped. Gay marriages should
not be at the forefront. Nothing against sexual preferences
but to think it has garnered the respect and attention
that it has, given its minority status is truly sickening.
Official Bilingualism has to go in Ontario and in other
provinces. Good Jobs must be distributed to skilled qualifed english white people as they are amongst everyone else. The ontario premier has to go. Ontario must get a premier who will tell ottawa where to go and what to do so this province starts living like its king status..instead of a cowardly subserviant.
Quebec don't put up with any hanky panky from Ottawa.
They tell the feds where to jump and how high.....heck..here is a province that has an official
opposition party in gov't with Members of this party
(the blocs) collecting rich canadian cheques...when there
mandate is to separate...but not really.....just keep
threatening to do it whilst collecting bread and butter
at the expense of the hard working canadian taxpayer.
Ariiiiiiiiiiiiba.............
Convert here - parents are die-hard NDPers.
You poor man.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
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