Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category
If You Thought a Sit In Was Bad – How About Chair Throwing?
To put this weeks sit in protest in Ontario’s legislature into some perspective, below is a video showing how the opposition and governing party in one of Argentina’s provinces settled their differences. Chair throwing, punching and the like. In all, ten politicians were injured.
I can’t find the video on youtube but here is the ABC News coverage of it.
Comments OffReflections on Day Two of Ontario’s Filibuster Equivalent
The single largest observation I would offer from the gong show unfolding in the legislature is the following; if the Liberals spent more time governing and less time playing politics and the PCs took a page from the NDP on being a more effective opposition in between walk outs and sit ins Ontario would be better off. This is an unwarranted mess.
I stand by my view that Speaker Peters went too far. Suspending an opposition MPP over their over the top attacks on the Government indefinitely is arbitrary and anti-democratic. In this case it was also selective enforcement of the standing orders. It is safe to say it is now clear he has lost control of the House, which makes his ability to preside over debate questionable. The longer this goes on, the more damage it inflicts on his ability to be Speaker, and sadly the office of Speaker.
Yes the rules allow such a suspension in theory because in 1939 the Standing Orders were amended, but that doesn’t make it right. It has also never been done. In Constitutional Law there is the matter of ’spent powers’ (those which not have been exercised and therefore are deemed ’spent’) The Sergeant-at-Arms also carries a sword to run through folks (this is clearly a spent power) Who is for that custom coming to a legislature near you? One has to also consider the shift in our politics since then, and the precedent set the last time a member defied the Speaker in this way.
Alvin Curling did the very same thing in 1995 that Bill Murdoch did in 2009. Both refused to comply with a Speaker’s order to leave the Chamber for the rest of the sessional day. Precedent is an important part of a Speaker’s job and decision making.
One resulted in a standstill for 18 hours, the other resulted in a suspension thirty minutes in after the Speaker took two breaks to consult whomever he consulted.
That person or people gave bad advice and handed the Speaker the nuclear option and resulted in days of chaos. Frankly it did exactly what the Progressive Conservatives wanted, kicked up a fuss and stalled the HST implementation bill.
Gilles Bisson – the NDP House Leader earns the ‘gentleman and scholar’ award for recognizing the disruption the whole PC Caucus was causing was of a greater concern to the Parliamentary Privilege than the Murdoch and Hillier sideshow playing out within the deafening banging that was killing any chance of debate.
On Monday it would have been fair to say the whole PC Caucus deserved to be thrown out for the day as each individual member refused to come to order upon repeated requests by the Speaker. The Speaker started naming some MPPs by riding, but if you watch the footage gives up part way through, clearly recognizing he was about 30 minutes away from expelling a whole party for the session.
To those who are using the ‘he was just following the rules argument’ every PC member present should have been named and escorted out for the day on Monday. But the Speaker didn’t try to do that because it had become abundantly clear he had lost control of the House and even his worst tool in the box wasn’t enough to regain it. The fact the threat of suspension didn’t work, and once he had suspended one member, he found himself suspending another shortly there after and then decided to ignore the routine of calling members to order with the threat of naming them demonstrates he even gets he went too far.
I support a fair and free debate in all forums and think it is unfortunate we’re so far passed that in our politics that government MPPs are ineffective sheep – regardless of party and opposition MPPs have zero ability to impact legislation.
McGuinty has proven to be as dismissive as Harris was of opposition, whether citizen-led or across the aisle and in some ways worse.
His refusal to allow for travelling hearings on the most significant tax measure this province has seen in a long time is motivated purely by politics and not what is in the best interest of Ontario or the legislative process. Its simply in the best interest of Dalton McGuinty and the Ontario Liberal Party.
The Ontario NDP should be commended for holding a consistent, coherent position on public hearings and the HST. They should also be commended on supporting civility in the Legislature even if the Government’s tactics and the Official Opposition’s response has made that about as realistic as meaningful public hearings on the HST.
With that said – I still believe the Speaker went too far and the House Leaders and Speaker will need to work out a plan for Speaker Peters to climb down and re-instate the members in question as part of any deal. Leaving this heavy handed precedence in place too severely limits MPPs ability to stand up to government.
Until then, I hope Hillier and Murdoch can continue to hold out for some time without access to the washroom or food, because however irresponsible their actions are deemed to be – both are defending their rights to be in that Chamber and standing up for democracy.
5 Comments »Half a Million Canadians Unemployed on Labour Day 2009
While it is fair to say most Canadians who are either enjoying the last long weekend of summer or spending it anxiously getting their children ready to return to school tomorrow probably aren’t thinking about the significance behind today; those who do, likely are thinking about the 500 000 Canadians who are unemployed. Labour Day is meant to celebrate the achievements of the labour movement and recognize the success organized labour has had causing improvements to benefit workers social and economic situations.
As an individual, I find the number of unemployed in Canada to be staggering. Five hundred thousand people is massive. If every single unemployed person lived in one city, it would be the size of Hamilton.
This is an unprecedented economic downtown, and at least in Ontario, unemployment in key sectors like manufacturing have been raising for years leading up to the full blown recession. One thing Liberals, New Democrats and the Bloc all seemed to agree on is that the Employment Insurance program in Canada was not suited to meet the needs of workers laid off in these numbers or during this kind of downturn. That’s why proposals for reform, which would see EI easier accessed, fairer for Canadians from coast to coast, and benefits more generous is in fact important.
Keep in mind, when times were good, the Federal government had huge surpluses in the EI account, and re-directed those funds for other government priorities and cut premiums for workers to reflect the predicted needs of the EI program. That worked when the economy was hitting new highs, and unemployment was at historic lows. I don’t necessarily endorse one party’s plan for reforming Employment Insurance, and I see this type of a reform as being more like a band aid on a broader challenge, but I do believe it is an important band aid and one I would like to see parliament work cooperatively on in the fall, instead of sending Canadians to another election that no one really wants.
Opposition parties also need to be very careful as Canadians have never elected four minority governments in a row, and polls show most Canadians want the stability a majority government brings. While the Bloc poses a significant challenge to any party forming a majority government, politicians and political operatives would be well advised to heed Canadian’s warnings about the desire to elect a majority and recognize forcing an election could cause a volatile political situation, where voters who aren’t married to a particular party vote strategically for the perceived winner, just to end the silly hour going on in Parliament.
For the Liberals and the Conservatives this could be really good or really bad. For the NDP and the Bloc it can only be bad. For Canadians, it’s un-necessary.
Let’s hope the election madness calms down long enough for all parties to genuinely try to do something to help unemployed people, and can come up with something more creative than temporary work at Elections Canada to do it.
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