My View: Harper Subverting Democracy

September 11, 2009

The most painful thing for me over the last four years has been to watch a Prime Minister who does not believe in government - deliberately, stealthily, methodically undermine our institutions - including Parliament and, thereby, our democracy.

The standing committees of the House of Commons, where real discussion and work is supposed to be carried out, have now become less effective - with many completely dysfunctional - as a result of Stephen Harper telling his MPs to disrupt the work of the committees. He has even provided them with a detailed manual telling Conservative MPs how to bring Committee business to a halt if it appears that the committee - representing all four parties - is not going to rubber stamp this government's right-wing agenda.

Stephen Harper has held Parliament hostage for four years now by making every bill a confidence issue that could trigger an election - despite the fact that, in our system of governance, only money bills are held to be matters of confidence.

At the time of the last budget, for example, he attached to the budget bill an unrelated bill that would essentially eliminate women's human rights and deny them access to the Canadian Human Rights Commission knowing full well that the opposition parties would not support such draconian measures if they were presented separately from the budget bill.

If we voted against the provisions denying women their basic human rights, that would have meant that the budget bill would be defeated and the country would be forced into another election - four months after the last one.

Harper, knowing full well that no one in their right mind wanted an election at that time, refused to separate from the budget bill the bill affecting women. His position was: pass the budget bill as is or get ready for another election - the fourth in four years.

That's the way this man operates. It's his way or the highway.

One of the first things we will do under a new Liberal government is repeal that regressive legislation and ensure that the rights of Canadian women are fully protected.

Stephen Harper even launched an attack on Elections Canada - the most respected electoral commission in the world - because he did not like the fact that Elections Canada, rightly so, had ruled that the Conservatives violated the spending limits in the 2006 election. That case is still before the courts.

There seems to be no end to the length that this Prime Minister will go to undermine our Parliamentary democracy and Canadian values.

And what is Stephen Harper up to now? As I write this column, the Conservatives are saying that they are going to subject the popular home retrofit rebate program - which every party in Parliament supports - to a vote of confidence in Parliament by the end of September.

According to the Conservatives, if that motion does not pass, we will be into the fourth election in five years.

That is patent nonsense. There is absolutely no way that the home retrofit bill can be considered a matter of confidence. But, that's the way Harper's Conservatives are spinning it and some in the media seem to be buying it.

It would appear that Stephen Harper wants to have an election and he is going to include the home retrofit rebate program in a bill that the other parties cannot support in order to jockey them into the position where they have no option but to defeat his minority government.

It's a sick game that Stephen Harper plays and I am sick and tired of watching it. These games have to end. This man has to go.

We need a government that believes that it has a role to play in improving the lives of all Canadians. A government that believes that we have a collective responsibility to ensure that every Canadian has the opportunity to enjoy everything our great country has to offer.

Let's build that kind of Canada - together.