the Walnut Diary

Tim Powers, Conservative gadfly and Harper apologist, today challenged the Opposition to contribute t0 a set of rules for prorogation. Here’s one which I posted as a comment on the Globe and Mail blog:

Earlier prorogations were often for as little as one day at the end of a legislative session. How about not leaving Canada without a government for over two months at a critical time? That would be one rule.

Let’s say Canadians would like some say in the imposition of the security measures in airports?

What if there is a major disaster between now and March? Parliament can’t come back in a flash.  There is no speaker, even.  The whole structure came apart with the act of prorogation.

One man rule, then? Are Canadians prepared to face a crisis with PMO press secretary Dimitri Soudas in charge?

“Last one out, turn off the light!” is not a valid governing principle for my country.

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January 8, 2010

The war of words heats up.  This morning John Ivison in an article in the National Post (http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2414457)
coined the term herbivores for those individuals expressing dismay on the Internet over the latest prorogation escapade.  Call us herbivores if you wish (meaning “cattle”), but our numbers are growing.

John Ivison’s comment may be a story in itself.  His fawning profile of Stephen Harper in the National Post was not unexpected.  When he called me and others like me “herbivores” because we express our objections online to prorogation, that’s when he crossed the line. No doubt the Harper camp and its adherents view those who oppose their plans as subhuman, but I object to the reference.  When those who have seized power view others as objects, can the cattle cars be far behind?