Parliament Takes Off!

Picture from the Globe and Mail

    Parliament is now in full swing - the seating was announced for the House of Commons, Harper announced his cabinet, the MPs elected Canada's youngest Speaker of the House (even though 32 isn't that young, in my mind), and then our wonderful Governor General David Johnston read the speech from the throne, outlining the Conservatives' no-surprises plan.

    I try to stay non-partisan, but I must say that the Conservatives seem on track to really help Canada. I don't agree with everything the Conservatives are proposing - for example, I think that the long gun registry does a good job keeping gun owners accountable and the per-vote subsidy is useful because it gives individual votes more weight - but overall the Conservatives seem like the party to bring us out of the recession and strengthen Canada.

Picture from CBC News

    This page broke the House of Commons rules by protesting with her "stop Harper" sign in the middle of the throne speech. She also called for Canadians to engage in acts of civil disobedience against the Harper government.

    I think this incident signifies what's wrong with Canadian politics lately - both the lack of respect between all parties, and the opposition parties' (mostly the Liberals) lack of respect for what Canadians vote for.  We have one of the best election systems in the world, and Canadians elected a Conservative majority government. I know that lots of people don't like Harper, but Canadians elected a Conservative majority government. I know that some people try to paint him as an extremist, but Canadian voters elected Stephen Harper as the Prime Minister of Canada and gave him a majority government. We live in a democracy, so you need to respect the citizens' choices. The citizens chose Harper.

    If Bob Rae was elected Prime Minister (yes, I know that would never happen), I wouldn't start protesting that we don't live in a democracy anymore and run a big smear campaign against him. I would respect the choice of Canadian voters, and understand that Canada would probably remain the best country in the world anyways, even with a Prime Minister I don't like.

    For a multi-cultural country which emphasises respecting those who are different than you and those who you disagree with, our politics is nasty and lacks civility. On the bright side, MPs are saying they'll tone down the heckling and personal attacks in Parliament. However, party supporters need to do the same if we want to turn our political scene from one of pointless quarrelling into one of constructive debate.

   Here's a good post by a Globe and Mail commentator about the page: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/second-reading/silver-powers/the-rogue-senate-page-and-the-absurdity-of-canadas-arab-spring/article2047880/

MPs' Expenses - From England to Canada

   I was in England when British MPs' expenses were leaked. The BBC states there were "claims for expensive TVs and furniture, MPs who claimed for more than one property by 'flipping' the designated second home and others who over-claimed for mortgages or services."

   British Members of Parliament had to pay back over a million pounds in claimed expenses and some were even prosecuted. Over half of the MPs in the British House of Commons were involved in the expenses scandal, and the rules regarding their expenses were criticised for being vague and lax. The rules were made by the MPs themselves! The country was outraged, especially when told all the details about MPs claiming for mock tudor beams, moat cleanings, and even a duck house.

   Then, back in Canada, I heard that our Auditor General, Sheila Fraser, was going to perform an audit on all of our MPs' expenses, because "it has been a very long time since an audit has been done of the House [of Commons]." Obviously, this is a good idea: there is nothing stopping Canadian MPs from abusing their expenses, just as there was nothing stopping the British MPs from claiming for tudor beams, moats, and duck houses... seriously, why would you need a duck house?! 

   Well, when our "Honourable Members of Parliament" heard that their Auditor General was going to audit them, they refused. Despite the public's overwhelming support of the audit, they told her she wasn't allowed to conduct an audit of the $533 million spent annually by the House of Commons and the Senate.

   Why am I writing about this now, when the audit was asked for almost a year ago? Because it still hasn't been done. Because $533 million is a lot of money, and our government just expects us to assume that it is being used properly, without any proof at all. Because the MPs' fear of the audit was evidence enough that they do have something to hide - that they aren't using the tax-payers' money responsibly. The Auditor General's job, according to the Canadian Auditor General Act, is to ensure that that the tax-payers' money is being used responsibly by "[making] such examinations and inquiries as [s]he considers necessary".

   But there was no audit, the media dropped their stories, and almost everyone has forgot about the issue. And the problem remains.