Some As Yet Unharvested Stupid: Yellowhead MP Rob Merrifield On Prorogation

Merrifield said the decision to prorogue Parliament had more to do with keeping the country focused than anything else.

"The prorogation is delaying things just a month. Why get revved up before the Olympics? We're going to have a throne speech after the Olympics. A new budget that will focus the country, the House of Commons and the Parliament on accomplishing what comes out of that throne speech. I think that's got a lot to do with it," Merrifield said.

So what's in that throne-speech & budget that requires two months of silent contemplation to prepare for (because, according to Merrifield, prorogation is just like life in the HOC, but quieter):

"I think the only real difference with prorogation is that you don't have us shouting and screaming at each other in question period."

Well:

"Nothing really earth-shaking, it's going to be a boring budget let's put it that way. I don't think there will be a lot of big cuts because that would be premature. I don't think there will be a lot of spending because we just can't keep spending."

As With Crime Legislation, So Too With Senate Reform

I've been arguing forever that the bulk of Harper's "tough on crime" legislation isn't meant to pass. Andrew Potter thinks (and I think I agree with him) that the same is true with Senate reform legislation:

I have a column in the Citizen today arguing that if Harper is serious about Senate reform, the appointments process is the place to focus his attention. Except I don’t actually think that Harper cares about Senate reform one way or another; like abortion in the US, it is one of those useful issues that Conservatives in Canada use to keep their base on a low boil. They are always just about to do something about it, though they never seem to get there. Senate reform for Harper is a tactical device, not part of a serious strategic agenda.


And I would just point out, that if the prorogation is meant to advance Harper's intention to begin electing senators and to set eight-year term limits, it as already failed. There's already a rogue among Harper's new appointees:

Newly minted Conservative senator and former Montreal Canadiens coach Jacques Demers says he has much to learn and more to prove.

In an interview with Sun Media, he revealed he could have been a Liberal senator, has only a peripheral interest in politics and no intention of asking electors for their support -- in spite of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's assertions new senators should run for office.

[...]

Demers expects to spend the next 10 years in the Senate, and wants to learn from his colleagues while keeping his own opinions.

How The Mighty Have Fallen

An anonymous TSF reader says the first floor of the recently sold Toronto Sun building will become a Loblaws store later this year.

Rumor has it the National Post HQ on Don Mills will be converted into a paint-ball facility. Defcon is looking to expand. A better class of people will moving in. Gentrification, and all that.

A Poll For The Freeping

Was Stephen Harper right to prorogue Parliament for two months?

On no less than Castanet, where Stockwell Day posts his weekly column.

PS. Freeping an online poll is a meaningless exercise. You should feel ashamed for casting those multiple "no" votes!

By they way. Your welcome, David Akin. You don't even have to thank me.

PS. You might find you have to do a very basic "sign up" before voting.

Kent Vs. Kent

Arthur Kent, the younger Kent, and still a journalist:

Canadians are often dismissed as being big on beer and hockey but largely apathetic about politics. But a mounting Facebook protest shows that while “Hosers” can hardly be called policy wonks, they’re not taking kindly to their “house of the people” being hijacked by the leader of a parliamentary minority.

Peter Kent, the elder Kent, once a journalist and now a pointless Tory MP:

Criticism...over the government's proroguing of Parliament is simply ‘sanctimonious twaddle’...

Wish I'd been a fly on the wall in the Kent household over Xmas. I bet somebody's spectacles got stomped.

The Truth About Prorogation

For some backbenchers, proroguing has given them no choice but to return to their actual ridings. “Having just visited my strip-mall nightmare of an office in the middle of this backwater hellhole, let me just say that I, like all Canadians, would like for me to get back to Ottawa,” said a parachuted-in MP from a remote part of the country, who asked to not be named.

Because its funny, and they link to me.

HST Effects Already Wearing Off

And McGuinty continues with a narrow lead:

If an election were held today, the Liberals would likely take 38 per cent of the vote among decided voters, as compared to 45 per cent in January of last year, according to the poll.

Opposition leader Tim Hudak and his Progressive Conservatives would take 34 per cent of the vote, down two points since October, but up five per cent since last year at this time.

Expect him to take a bit of a hit in July when the tax kicks in, and then I suspect the HST will disappear from the provincial political landscape. And if there is no national election before July, I suspect it will become a non-issue federally as well. Too bad for the NDP.

Fox News Make Brain Hurt

From their Science and Technology page:

The tremendous volcanic eruption thought to be responsible for Earth's largest mass extinction — which killed more than 70 percent of plants and dinosaurs walking the planet 250 million years ago — is still taking lives today.

Scientists investigating the high incidence of lung cancer in China's Xuan Wei County in Yunnan Province conclude that the problem lies with the coal residents use to heat their homes. That coal was formed by the same 250-million-year-old giant volcanic eruption — termed a supervolcano — that was responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs. The high silica content of that coal is interacting with volatile organic matter in the soil to cause the unusually high rates of lung cancer.

Well, no, the Permian–Triassic extinction event predated the rise of Dinosaurs, and might have enabled it. Certainly it did not cause their extinction. And, oh yes, plants can't walk.

Tory Leadership To Go On "Listening Tour"

From Government whip Jay Hill's column today:

Over the next several weeks, our Government will be undertaking a cross-country tour, meeting with Canadians as we enter Phase II of Canada’s Economic Action Plan and leading up to the Throne Speech on March 3rd and the federal Budget on March 4th.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and a number of my other Cabinet colleagues, including myself, will be meeting with and hearing from Canadian families, homeowners, workers, business-owners and industries across the country about how best to meet our economic goals.

Paul Wells wrote yesterday about the various means by which Harper's Tories intended to co-opt Liberal strategy, but he doesn't mention Iggy's much derided plan for a "listening tour", so I am thinking this has been cobbled together rather hastily to demonstrate that yes indeed the government is "working for Canadians". Consider this quote from the Tory website (dated January 02,2010), which contrasts Iggy's gallivanting with the steady, stay at home Harper and co.:

As Michael Ignatieff travels the country promising lavish new spending, the result such reckless policies would be higher taxes for everyone.

Our Conservative Government will remain committed to responsible economic leadership by continuing to carry out Canada’s Economic Action Plan. We will always work in the best interest of Canadians, their families and our economy.

But that was then and this is now, right?

Incidentally, last Kady night posted an interesting analysis of the recent EKO poll results. One bit stood out:

Regionally, Atlantic Canadians were more likely to characterize themselves as "strongly opposed" [to prorogation] than denizens of any other province...

Not surprising, when you think of it. This is a region of the country that has long been derided by Western Conservatives (including Mr. Harper himself in an earlier incarnation) for being lazy no-goods, and now you've got a gov. straight outta Calgary that's awarded itself a three month vacation. That's gotta grate. Bums from out West, anyone?

Better Be One Hell of A Speech

Gathering input for both the throne speech and a new budget to be introduced once Parliament reconvenes March 3, is keeping [Sarnia-Lambton Conservative MP Pat] Davidson occupied during these 12 weeks away from Ottawa, she said.

"It's very true that it's a long period of time, but it's time required for the throne speech to be done properly."

The last throne speech was a grand total of 758 words, so we're looking at nearly three hours per word. Damn thing better rhyme or something.

Sometimes I Feel Sorry For Stephen Harper

The Olympics in Canada were another good reason to prorogue Parliament, [Tory MP for Perth-Wellington Gary Schellenberger] added.

"If we are sitting, how do MPs get to those events," he said of the Olympic games. "It makes sense that we are not sitting."

h/t

Will Someone Please Think Of The Foreigners!

From the St. Albert Gazette, the shorter Conservative MP Brent Rathgeber: we've prorogued because, if international visitors should hear about the detainee controversy while they're over watching the Olympics, they would depart with negative feelings towards Canada. There's also this awesomely Orwellian line: “Democracy and Parliament are not being sidestepped — they are only being suspended.” By their thumbs, perhaps?

PS. Easier to read if you right click on image and open in new window.

Ht

Calling Dan Cook

Hello, Mr. Cook! You out there somewhere? Hallooo??? HALLLLOOOOOO???? I was wondering if you might do one of your cute "grass roots fury" cartoons now that the new EKOS poll has come out. If you are having trouble with the math drop me an e-mail and I will try to help you out. I also have an idea for the cartoon: I see a picture of Globe blogger with his head jammed up his ass.

GST Rebate Ruling

...is here, courtesy Ms. O'Malley. I'm going to try and give it a read later today, perhaps without success.

FWIW, Kady says:

Will today's ruling affect other political parties?

[...]

...as far as I can tell, it won't, since the circumstances that led to this particular dispute between the Conservatives and the chief electoral officer appear to be unique to that party, which -- if I'm reading this right, at least -- was initially unaware of the fact that a change in the tax law meant it could qualify as a non-profit organization for GST rebate purposes.

Getting Under Their Skin...

The dude from NN notes:

They wouldn't be speaking out unless authorized by his tremendousness, and HE wouldn't be authorizing it if he thought there wasn't a problem.

Meanwhile, looks like Mr. Harper will be vacationing in Vegas.

PS. I am told the PM is allergic to metal, and the above fact is not evidence that he's nailing hookers on the side down on the Nevada strip. Fair enough. He presumably uses bone knives on his political enemies.

Back To Square One

Kady on why the anti-drug-crime law (Bill C-15) and consumer safety law (C-6) are well and truly dead:

But because the House was prorogued before the messages could be officially received, the bills were still technically before the Senate, which has no mechanism, automatic or on demand, for reinstatement of government legislation from the previous Order Paper.

As a result, those bills will have to be reintroduced in the House -- or, if the government prefers, the Senate -- at first reading, and go through the whole process again."

...which is to say that, with these bills at least, there is no way to reintroduce them at the stage they had reached when Parliament was prorogued. On the other hand, had the Tories simply appointed their five Senators and returned to a non-prorogued parliament in January:

Although at that point the Senate could, in theory, simply re-amend the bill and throw it back to the Commons, setting off what could turn into infinite legislative loop, with those five (or thirteen) additional Conservative votes in the Red Chamber, both bills would have almost certainly have survived a second attempt at sober second tweaking, and could have been given Royal Assent within days.

So the Tory government could have got several of its key-note pieces of anti-crime legislation through the entire legislative process, and passed into law. They chose not too, thus disappointing some of the stakeholders involved and, most likely, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, whose been working on some of this stuff for months with little to show for it.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Harper doesn't want to pass this legislation; he wants to campaign on it.

Well, Okay

I'm not quite sure how this will work out. Lots of opportunity for a media gong-show to break out. And this

....on the issue of Afghan detainees, and whether the government was aware of the risk of their torture after being handed over by Canadian troops, it's expected that Liberals will be working with New Democrats and the Bloc Québécois to keep the conversation alive.

...is a bit fraught. For example, statements made in any ad hoc committee would not be subject to parliamentary privilege. That is, someone could get sued. Since the Tories have sent staffers to watch committee meetings they've boycotted, you can be sure they'll have someone on hand to monitoring the proceedings here.

9000% of Globe Columnists Can't Do Math

Scott has the story ...of rampant innumeracy at Canada's only non-bankrupt national newspaper.

Not Helping...

Yeah, that's this Craig Chandler. He's talking about the defection of Alta. Tory MLAs Rob Anderson and Heather Forsyth to the Wildrose Alliance yesterday. Pic got from here. I assume the title is ironic.

Stockwell Day: Help Fill My Empty Hours

Stock tries to convince his constituents that's he'll be working hard over the holiday:

So I was able to buy two tickets for one of the non-playoff hockey games. It will be a great experience just to attend. And at the time I bought mine there were still some seats available, if you're interested.

[...]

(Just as an aside: I thought these tickets were sold off by lottery. However, I guess rank has its privileges.)

I will be in Vancouver for a good part of the time during the Olympics in my function as Minister for International Trade and the Asia-Pacific Gateway.

[...]

...next Monday I have a number of constituent meetings already booked but still have a couple of slots open. As usual, just call the office and we'll do our best to fit you in.

[...]

I've also set aside time for some door-knocking. As regular readers of this column know, I maintain a year round program of door-knocking in between elections as well as during elections. I have found this to be one of the best ways to hear from you, the voters and taxpayers. There's nothing quite like getting the views of people right on their doorsteps - no filters, no handlers, just me getting the straight goods from you.

So I may be at your door next week either in the Peachland/ Westside area or up in Merritt and Logan Lake.

I'm also looking forward to speaking next week at one of our local Rotary Clubs. Rotary, like many other local service clubs, is always a good venue for feedback.

There you have it. Stock's earning his pay-cheque, if not by guiding legislation through the HOC, then by wrangling hockey tickets for his constituents. Leave Stock alone.