According to Cowboys, given how prorogation resets all the clocks, its probably still alive into 2011. His conclusion: The Harper government doesn't really want it to pass. This is something I've suspected about many of the govs.' bills--they're there to keep the faithful agitated, not to actually become law. This one? Well, I don't know anymore. You can't keep promising the same thing forever, can you? If you keep ringing the bell, but don't ever provide the doggy snacks, doesn't the conditioning eventually wear off?
PS. No, Bill C-391 does not die. I know that. The various delays it is now subject to now put passage either at way the end of next year or into 2011.
Harper has no vision, no new policies, therefore, he prorogues over and over again and uses the "old" policies over and over again.
ReplyDeleteWell, the Republicans have been ringing the abortion bell for 30 years and the Gay Marriage bell for at least ten and their own gun bell for as long as I can remember. They still work on the base . So, my guess is the Conservatives have a long time before their base gets restless.
ReplyDeleteA prorogue only affects government sponsored bills ... under reforms passed by the House in the 1990s, private members bills such as the one in question here are still on the order paper, they are however renumbered in sequential order with reference to the former number in the "notes" to the legislation. But still, this tactic nonetheless delays consideration of the legislation and beyond that it sends the wrong signal to the world that Parliament would take a PM-ordained break during the Olympics. A recess should be voted on by the House.
ReplyDeleteI think Cowboy has a valid point. The Cons need to keep the registry alive in order to continue to ask for donations, all for that phantom day when his opponents "need to be taught a lesson." Harper will use the beneficial delays that prorogation provides to blame the opposition for dragging it out. This keeps his base in line (stupidly thinking they are still the victims, not realizing they've been the government now for over 4 years) while the CPC war room prepares for favourable future election conditions. This is all entirely too predictable.
ReplyDeleteYeah, if they reintroduce it like they claim to want to do, it will be the third kick at the can for C-15, the lock-up-the-hippies anti-marijuana bill. Yeah, kill your own bill twice: that's a real priority there, Steve.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Harper's just waiting until more of the blue-haried set dies off with each delay . He has more than ample evidence that a) it does nothing to curb the so-called 'problem' b) will cost him (for the federal crowns) and the provinces (for the jail space) a fortune to implement, c) shifts the growers from peaceful BC hippies to real hardcore gangster types, and d) doesn't even work, as his head weasel Nicholson couldn't come up with any evidence when questioned by the committee.