Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

Is this the best we can do?

by Aaron Wherry on Tuesday, November 8, 2011 9:30am - 9 Comments

Chris Plecash asks various political players to consider the laments of Lowell Murray.

Ultimately, said Sen. Murray, due process has eroded. “It is what makes our electoral democracy work, our parliamentary democracy work, our system of governance work. You must respect due process.”

“I think there’s been a sort of acquiescence over the years that it’s just the way things go,” David Christopherson said. “What we’re hearing from Senator Murray and others is that it’s time that we stop and gave this whole system a good shake. Is this the best democracy that we can provide for Canadians?”

Tags: David Christopherson, democratic reform, house of commons, lowell murray, Parliament

More by Aaron Wherry

gtrplyr055

Is this “man” the best we can do for Canada? From the Hill Times article:

When asked to respond to Sen. Murray’s statements on Cabinet’s
diminished influence, Treasury Board President Tony Clement (Parry
Sound-Muskoka, Ont.) responded: “He’s entitled to his opinions as a
private citizen, even if they’re misjudged and completely fallacious.”

gtrplyr055

And I don’t mean Senator Murray….
PayAttention

Quite simply, Tony Clement is an absolute disgrace.
Anonymous

He’s entitled to his opinions … unless, of course, he ever gave a donation to another party.

Hester Eastman

Interesting article, too bad more people don’t speak out against our third rate pols and Parliament. Pols aren’t superior human beings – why should they be able to scrutinize budgets, for instance, when teachers/students are incapable of adding 1/4 and 1/4?

One aspect that gets left out of democracy in crisis articles is the role of msm – for at least 20 yrs, our journos have acquiesced in not reporting bad behaviour of our pols.

Our msm is overwhelmingly Liberal, and they prefer The State to individuals, and so any kind of proper social criticism has not appeared in Canada for decades. As far as I can tell, most journos are friends and colleagues with public employees and, therefore, they do little more than stenography any more. Communications people in government are paid to lie to public, basically, but journos give them enormous respect and space and treat propaganda as truth.

Globe/Mail with Topp as columnist is joke – newspaper and potential leader of opposition are working together to get him elected. Papers are supposed to act as check on government power, they are supposed to represent the common person, but now they provide platform for propaganda and totally ignore electorate’s interests.

If Topp becomes leader of NDP, why should we give a flying fcuk what Globe thinks about anything to do with Fed politics?

PJ O’Rourke ~ Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy, the whores are us.

neuroticdog

Sure, MSM are (the word “media” is plural) “overwhelmingly liberal” if you’re able to overlook the fact that QMI, one of the largest media conglomerates in the country, is relentlessly right-wing, supports the Cons almost without qualification, and is waging war on the nation’s public broadcaster.

But cling to your myths if it makes you feel better.