Trudeau wants an audience, not an Opposition
One of my personal hobbies and passions is Second World War history. So, let me give you an interesting history quiz: What鈥檚 the difference between Luftwaffe bombs and COVID-19? The latter was a good enough excuse to suspend parliamentary democracy and the former wasn鈥檛.
All through the London Blitz, with bombs falling all around, when you couldn鈥檛 walk around without fear of imminent death, with people confined to air-raid shelters, the British Parliament continued to sit. Winston Churchill still had to answer for his decisions to the elected representatives and any decision he made still had to be put to a vote.
Today, even with our modern teleconferencing technologies, Justin Trudeau has decided that democracy is just too much bother.
A few weeks ago, the Liberal government, in cahoots with the NDP, suspended Parliament until September, an act unprecedented in Canadian history.
Now, it would be understandable if you find this confusing because, from what you see on TV it looks as though Parliament is still sitting. But what you鈥檙e seeing isn鈥檛 Parliament. It鈥檚 鈥渇aux parliament鈥�. It鈥檚 the Special Committee on the COVID-19 Pandemic. This committee has very limited powers. This committee cannot pass laws and cannot present or pass a formal budget. The tools by which the Opposition can hold the government to account are extremely curtailed.
Our country, at the moment, is being governed primarily by executive rule. Justin Trudeau wants an audience not an Opposition. He doesn鈥檛 believe he should be accountable to Canadian voters and taxpayers.
This isn鈥檛 the first time that the Liberals have tried to use the pandemic as an excuse to give themselves expanded power. Early on, they tried to introduce a bill that would have given them effectively unlimited power to pass laws and spend money for up to two years in the future without having to seek approval from Parliament. The Conservative Party succeeded in blocking that attempted coup, but they obviously have not given up.
Obviously, the Liberals are not happy that the voters only gave them a minority government and are doing everything they can to undo the results of the election.
Now is not the time to shut down our democratic institutions. The Liberals are incurring the largest deficit in Canadian history 鈥� over $250 billion. The most fundamental and sacred principle of parliamentary democracy is that the government must be accountable to Parliament for money that it spends.
Make no mistake: this is a fundamental attack on the founding principles of Canadian democracy. Canadians should be mad, and they should let Trudeau know they are mad. We need to fight back. Call, email and find other pandemic-safe ways to protest. We cannot let him get away with this.
Michael Kram
Member of Parliament for Regina鈥擶ascana
