Thoughts on BC Politics and More

Here’s a reply I composed to someone who proposes putting politicians in jail when they do things he doesn’t approve of:   I don’t know where you live but in my country, Canada, my political opponents do many of the things you describe or that I consider to be unjust, uncharitable, or deceitful. Because defending my country’s democratic way of life is so very important, I’m going to describe it to you in greater detail than we usually do on FaceBook. Except for corruption, fraud and theft in my country all the other things you describe are not prohibited by law. Also, my political opponents are supported by, and include, about 30% of the population who agree with their policies on the issues you mention. We would have to build a lot more jails to hold them if we criminalized their political choices. In my country if I wanted to make their objectionable conduct subject to jailing, I would first have to pass a law prohibiting it. We have what is called “rule of law,” by w...

FRASER INSTITUTE: On Wednesday morning, the government, with the unanimous consent of the Opposition parties (Conservatives, NDP, Green Party and Bloc Québécois), passed legislation giving sweeping powers to Finance Minister Bill Morneau, including the power to unilaterally spend and borrow without parliamentary approval until September 2020. While the original legislation was revised , removing the ability to change taxes unilaterally, it remains an affront to Parliament and the separation of powers on which the Canadian system of government is built.  Indeed, Bill C-13 , An Act respecting certain measures in response to COVID-19, grants the federal health and finance ministers the power to spend “ all money required to do anything in relation to that public health event of national concern .” While the Liberals agreed to accountability measures including an undertaking that the minister provide to the Commons Standing Committee on Finance a biweekly...

One of the challenges, with so many different events occurring in Ottawa, is that some become overlooked. This occurred last week as the third party opposition, Bloc Québécois, had their first Opposition Day in the House (of Commons) and tabled the following motion: Mr. Blanchet (Beloeil—Chambly): “ That the House call on the government to increase the special Employment Insurance sickness benefits from 15 weeks to 50 weeks in the upcoming budget in order to support people with serious illnesses, such as cancer .” After debate on this motion was complete a vote was held with the Bloc, Conservative and NDP voting in favour of the motion passing with the governing Liberals opposed. In the last parliament, this opposition motion would have been defeated however in this minority parliament, the motion passed. Prior to this motion passing, the maximum time for the special employment benefit on Employment Insurance (EI) was limited to 15 weeks, a limit that has been in place ...

I recently wrote about the makeup of the Parliamentary Press Gallery.   We need to know why the “ Parliamentary Press Gallery ” memberships are controlled by a private corporation. No private corporation should have the right to use Parliament or Parliamentary in its name as it is highly misleading; suggesting that it is a formal part of government. Our Parliamentary Press Gallery must be an agency of government reporting to the House of Commons, and have an open and transparent means of appeal for any journalist who is refused membership. A free press must not be managed by a private corporation, particularly not the segment reporting on the events and issues surrounding our government and governance. Access to the press gallery includes access to house and committee proceedings, as well as some access to Ministers.  Press Gallery membership is much more than being able to sit in the public galleries to observe proceedings ... other...