Christian Conservative Christian "Independent"

I'm an evangelical Christian, member of the CPC, but presently & unjustly exiled to wander the political wilderness.
All opinions expressed here are solely my own.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Liberals opposed to extending Session?

UPDATE: Darn G&M headline... "Liberals tie detainee committee to deal on break weeks" was somewhat misleading, the Liberals have NOT tied their support for the extension of Parliament to reconvining the Afghan committee... they've simply made some "suggestions".[END UPDATE]

Hang on a sec, what's this? After the Tories offer to make up for lost time with the extension of Parliament for an extra two weeks, all of a sudden Ignatieff has gotten all "iffy" about the idea, trying to attach conditions?

Hang on, didn't they tell Canadians that cutting the session short was an affront to democracy? I guess they really didn't care about those extra weeks after all... funny, after the huge fuss they were making about the whole prorogue thing.

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posted by Christian Conservative @ 1:02 p.m.  

11 Comments:

  • At Thu Feb 11, 04:32:00 p.m. EST, Blogger Ted Betts said…

    Try reading the letter again, CC.

    They reaffirm Ignatieff's acceptance of the cancellation of the break, reaffirm Ignatieff's call to work even harder than that by inviting the PM to start back right now instead of further delaying matters.

    What the letter says, quite clearly, is that if Harper is truly committed to making Parliament work effectively to repair the damage he caused by shutting down Parliament for nearly 3 months, he could stop playing games and commit to the very reasonable suggestions they make in the letter, all focused on making government more accountable and Parliament more efficient.

    Read them again. They are very reasonable. Why would Harper oppose these accountability suggestions? Why would you? I can't think of any reasonable reason not to comply with the Liberal demands.

     

  • At Thu Feb 11, 04:40:00 p.m. EST, Blogger Christian Conservative said…

    It's simple Ted... the PM prorogued to allow his Ministers to more effectively work on the Budget, without the destraction of partisan games like Question Period. (which, as I understand it, wastes about three hours out of everyone's day to prepare for...)

    The Liberals request SPECIFICALLY states that they want Ministers available upon request, which defeates the purpose.

    As for the Afghan issue, I'm more than happy to let the Opposition bang the war drums on that one, but it's not my call... I was rather enjoying watching the Opposition play with all the rope we'd given them, accusing our troops of "war crimes" and all. Don't forget, it's not allegations of torture they were investigating... it was ALLEGATIONS OF ALLEGATIONS of torture they were investigating.

    And finally, you should know full well what the prorogation was about... IT WAS ALL ABOUT THE SENATE COMMITTEE STRUCTURE. If you haven't figured that out, and that this whole Liberal spin machine was because they were ticked about losing their majority, then you're not as sharp as I thought you were, and have been well spun by the Libs.

     

  • At Thu Feb 11, 04:49:00 p.m. EST, Blogger Ted Betts said…

    It's simple CC... you made a claim in your post that was wrong and are now trying to deflect and change the subject.

    If you want to start debating something other than your post, fine, I guess, but at least admit you read the letter too quickly or something. I get the very real sense that, as rabid a blind partisan as you are (as you demonstrate with your response to my comment), you are not a dishonest man. Not deliberately at least.

    And you did make some false accusations that are easily disproved by your own link.

     

  • At Thu Feb 11, 04:58:00 p.m. EST, Blogger Christian Conservative said…

    Ted, in re-reading the letter, I do see that they're "suggestions", and don't seem to be hard and fast "conditions", as I did presume they were. Though I did read the article, I guess I let the headline skew my perspective on what was actually being said... "Liberals tie detainee committee to deal on break weeks"

    Guess it boils down to a poorly worded headline, read quickly while on a break.

     

  • At Thu Feb 11, 04:58:00 p.m. EST, Blogger Christian Conservative said…

    Ted, in re-reading the letter, I do see that they're "suggestions", and don't seem to be hard and fast "conditions", as I did presume they were. Though I did read the article, I guess I let the headline skew my perspective on what was actually being said... "Liberals tie detainee committee to deal on break weeks"

    Guess it boils down to a poorly worded headline, read quickly while on a break.

     

  • At Thu Feb 11, 05:05:00 p.m. EST, Blogger Ted Betts said…

    "Guess it boils down to a poorly worded headline, read quickly while on a break."

    You wouldn't be the only one. Was certainly my initial reaction.

    (ps. and if senate committees was really what prorogation was about, he would have had Parliament start back on January 25)

     

  • At Thu Feb 11, 06:05:00 p.m. EST, Blogger Ted Betts said…

    CC:

    Good for you to add the update and clarify. Responsible and respectful of the truth.

     

  • At Thu Feb 11, 06:09:00 p.m. EST, Blogger Christian Conservative said…

    pps. Ted... then there's the whole Budget thing, on top of the Olympics...

    While I do think Harper is a political chessmaster, I honestly don't think he's this evil conniving fiend that the Opposition tries to make him out to be... so I do take it at face value when he says it's about the Budget process, the Olympics, and the Senate Committees. (well, HE didn't say it was also about the Senate, but me and my Tory friends are pretty sure that it was)

     

  • At Thu Feb 11, 09:43:00 p.m. EST, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    If Harper really wants to take the mickey out of Iggy, make sure that the House sits through July and August too. If he can keep his face straight, he can say, "I want to improve the quality and quantity of democracy in Canada." You'll hear screams of protest from the MSM and the opposition then.

     

  • At Thu Feb 11, 10:38:00 p.m. EST, Blogger Top Can said…

    the PM prorogued to allow his Ministers to more effectively work on the Budget, without the destraction of partisan games like Question Period. (which, as I understand it, wastes about three hours out of everyone's day to prepare for...)

    CC, just because Question Period really is a waste of time doesn't mean the Ministers can prorogue Parliament in order to avoid answering questions as required under our system of democracy. A more practical solution should be reforming the format of Question Period. Shelly Glover suggested the other day that perhaps it should be only a weekly thing, like they do it in the UK. Even the Americans are thinking about installing some kind of QP format for President Obama to answer questions from Congress.

    Just shutting down the entire thing to not waste time answering ridiculous questions that serve no purpose other than to score political points isn't the answer.

     

  • At Fri Feb 12, 10:21:00 a.m. EST, Blogger Emily Dee said…

    I would like to draw your attention to how this is seen on the International stage. In the Jamaica Gleaner they ran a piece called Tsk, tsk, tsk, Mr. Harper
    http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20100128/cleisure/cleisure4.html

    In it they referred to the fact that they researched the abuse of prorogation in the "Westminster systems and found only three times when prorogation was used to avoid political inquiries: all three were in Canada; two were by Harper."

    But what was more disturbing was this comment: "Over the Christmas holidays, faced with a parliamentary enquiry into abuses of Afghan prisoners by Canadian soldiers, Harper asked the Canadian governor general to prorogue parliament.."

    "Abuses of Afghan prisoners by Canadian soldiers."

    As Mr. Harper has tried to transfer blame onto our men and women in uniform, they are now wearing this.

    And besides, two weeks does not make up for the time lost, nor does it bring back the 37 bills left on the table.

    I appreciate your undying faith and loyalty to your leader, but my God would never accept this.

    This speaks to the honour of our country and our troops.

    Is this really YOUR Canada?

     

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