In all, this week's events, just another symptom of life in Harper majorityland where our democratic deficit is ever increasing. Frances Russell quoted a number of scholars on the issue, yesterday:
"Canada's Parliament," according to the director of the Constitution Unit at University College, London, "is more dysfunctional than any of the other Westminster parliaments," he continues. "No prime minister in any Commonwealth country with a governor general, until Harper, has ever sought prorogation to avoid a vote of confidence. Only in Canada has a government secured the prorogation of Parliament to save itself from political defeat and only in Canada has the governor general been party to it."
University of Manitoba professor emeritus of political studies Paul Thomas says Harper has "extended and deepened" existing trends "toward more concentration of power and more techniques to protect the reputation of the prime minister and the standing of the government." He warns that "degrees matter in these things."
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"Harper seems to want to have a sort of all-pervasive unification and direction of policy-making so nothing gets announced without prior knowledge and approval from the centre," Thomas continued in an interview. "There is the emergence of this new political class that occupies a kind of constitutional twilight zone. They're not accounted for in our constitutional order."The fraying of Ottawa's civility and commitment to inclusionary democracy continues. The question, as always, what are we going to do about it. We will continue to kvetch, sure. What will be interesting in coming years is how roadblocked Ottawa will be challenged from within and without.
