OmniBUSTED?

[Anti-Am]

Jacee, it is just part of the Bilderberg plan.

[Topaz]

Let's take EI, as I've said before, the EI had 57 Billion in it when the A/t's came to power. They took all but 2 billion, which went into the NEW EI fund and took the rest they say went to debt reduction. Today, the EI Fund is 8 billion in the RED and is growing because too many Canadians are losing their jobs, even the Feds. We have somewhere between 1.5-2 million umemployed across the country. Some are on welfare some, on early CPP, and who knows how the others are surviving. Now, where did the 55 Billion go to pay debt off, when they ended up with a 55 Billion deficit?? So they paid down the national debt to ended up with a deficit and interest to pay towards instead?

[Anti-Am]

Who is going to watch this whole delay the bill thing tomorrow? I think at least 1000 amendments will

be offered.

[capricorn]

Who is going to watch this whole delay the bill thing tomorrow? I think at least 1000 amendments will

be offered.

I'll be watching just to see when Elizabeth May finally takes a bathroom break.

[Anti-Am]

871 amendments have been filed altogether but there will be a minimum of 67 votes and a maximum of 159

that = 7-18 straight hours

Edited June 11, 2012 by Anti-Am

[Dave_ON]

Didn't you guys say the same thing about that long gun thingy....? Ohhhhh and those other little bits of legislation that passed even after tabled motions were squashed? It's funny how only the minority thinks it's ham-fisted..... I, kinda like the bill! The way things are going, Steve has more than the next 6 years in a majority spot... Pretty sure this bill will pass to the liking of the majority...

Hmmm, I dare say your assessment is likely a bit premature. I mean in reality, the CPC has not been in power for a full year, and if Mr. Harper holds to his 4 year election law, of which I’m not entirely convinced that he will, he has more than enough time “screw up” enough that his tenuous hold on a majority could slip. Now is not the time to be heavy handed with his majority, but Mr. Harper is merely the latest in a rather long line of autocratic PM’s that began with Trudeau.

Let’s be realistic, as has already been pointed out the CPC pulled off a majority sans Quebec, this is no mean feat, however it gives them a rather tenuous grasp on their majority and almost no margin for error. They’ve already sacrificed all the seats they can spare which means they have to hold on to every single seat they have in Ontario. Ontario, is the king maker in all of this, and Ontario is far from firmly in the grasp of the CPC. Many of the ridings were won narrowly, because of the LPC/NDP split; my own riding among them which hadn’t had a Conservative elected for the better part of 3 decades.

If Mr. Harper and the CPC want to govern from west that’s all well and good, that does require a great deal of pandering to Ontario. If they can keep Ontario happy, then yes you may well be right, they may pull off another majority, but if they falter in Ontario, they’re back to at best minority status and at worst official opposition.

[Signals.Cpl]

Hmmm, I dare say your assessment is likely a bit premature. I mean in reality, the CPC has not been in power for a full year, and if Mr. Harper holds to his 4 year election law, of which I’m not entirely convinced that he will...

Do you think Harper will turn Canada into a dictatorship?

[eyeball]

Do you think Harper will turn Canada into a dictatorship?

Turn into? Keep pushing it in that direction is more like it. All he's really managed to do is put a meaner uglier face on what's been a long deteriorating slide in the quality of democracy and good governance in this country.

Maybe he's just what the country needs to make people reconsider where we're headed.

So far it doesn't look like the little one on one with the Queen has yielded a more yielding PM yet, but maybe it's too early to tell.

Edited June 11, 2012 by eyeball

[MiddleClassCentrist]

Turn into? Keep pushing it in that direction is more like it. All he's really managed to do is put a meaner uglier face on what's been a long deteriorating slide in the quality of democracy and good governance in this country.

Maybe he's just what the country needs to make people reconsider where we're headed.

So far it doesn't look like the little one on one with the Queen has yielded a more yielding PM yet, but maybe it's too early to tell.

"In the interests of democracy, I ask how can members represent their constituents on these various areas when they are forced to vote on a block of such legislation?"

Stephen Harper on Liberal Omnibus Bill, 2005

[Dave_ON]

Do you think Harper will turn Canada into a dictatorship?

The simple answer: No, he doesn't have that kind of power. The constitution and the crown protects us from dictatorship as it were.

The long answer: Is Mr. Harper autocratic? Well most certainly of that there is no doubt, is he more autocratic than Chretien, Mulroney, or Trudeau? Not at all, he's just taken the next step in an ongoing process. Slowly over the past 30 years or so, the PMO has vacuumed up many of the erstwhile powers of the crown. This is an unfortunate turn of events, and has subsequently made the PMO far more powerful than the office was ever intended to be. In many ways it has superseded, in the case of a majority at least, the supremacy of parliament; that combined with party discipline being what it is in Canada, does give the PMO seemingly unlimited power. This is not a direct result of Mr. Harper himself, as mentioned he’s merely continuing the long tradition of Canadian PM’s that preceded him.

There is hope however, and thankfully the fathers of confederation had the foresight to limit the power of the legislative body. We do have the Court that ensures laws made abide by the constitution, we also have the executive branch in place, which gives the provinces direct redress with the crown should they object to any law in which the Federal government does not have direct jurisdiction. The provinces are in a confederation in which the queen is the head of state, but the provinces too each have the queen as head of state.