PMO, MP's vs. Appointed Officials, Politics as Usual

The fact that the former head of a federal inquiry into the sponsorship scandal has told members of Parliament that there is a dangerous and growing concentration of power in the Prime Minister's Office should come as no surprise. This has been a growing concern of anyone who pays attention to Canadian Politics for some time now. The role of MPs in day-to-day decision-making has been diminished while the size and influence of PMO has grown, retired judge John Gomery said Thursday.

“It should be remembered that the political staff in the Prime Minister's Office are not elected,” he told the government operations committee.

“They are not subject to any rules or laws of which I am aware, and they have the ear of the most important and powerful person in Canadian government.

“I suggest that this trend is a danger to Canadian democracy and leaves the door wide open to the kind of political interference in the day-to-day administration of government programs that led to what is commonly called the sponsorship scandal.”

What we are seeing here is a gradual move towards a dictatorship of sorts. Harper already runs his minority government as a majority with his claim that "we have a mandate to govern" where he makes every possible issue a confidence vote. The point of having an official opposition is to keep the government in check and prevent it from running out of control. We elect representatives to represent us, so that we can have some say in the day to day functioning of OUR government. But what we are seeing is the complete lack of respect for the opinions of our elected representatives and a 100% reliance on the opinions of UNELECTED (aka appointed) aids to the PMO. People who are not responsible to anyone except the party and the corporations that prop them up in positions of power. A serious question every Canadian should be asking is, what are the politics of these people and who's best interests are they representing?

Now, I'm not saying that all the people we have elected are doing a great job either. But we have a level of control over them, albeit not much of one, since they are responsible to the party first and the citizenry second. Political reform is something this country should think about, but I will discuss that in a later article. MP's regardless of party affiliation should have the ear of the PMO, because they are the ones most responsible to the people who this government is supposed to serve. I think most of the time that the Federal and Provincial governments forget that we the tax payers actually employ them and pay those highly inflated salaries.

Politics as usual, whats the current situation?

Well we have a PM that says he and Canada do not want an election, while secretly he is craving an election before the recession that is sweeping the US makes its way north of the border. He wants and needs an election before that happens and hes willing to do anything in his power to make that happen. Hence we have the rhetoric that every vote is a confidence motion, so it looks like the election is the oppositions fault. If the opposition disagrees with the PM then we get a vote. At the moment the Conservatives are confident that they can win an election and possibly secure a majority, which might be the worst possible thing to ever happen in Canadian Political history.

The Liberals on the other hand, are desperately trying to avoid an election, for they know that Harpers CONs have a lot of support and could take a majority if an election is called in the near future. This is why we've seen them either voting for motions they slightly oppose and not voting at all on motions they completely oppose. For in the next election whenever it happens they do not want to be attached in anyway to motions that were detrimental to Canada. Then they can say, "well we didn't support that motion", but the CONs will say "you didn't oppose it either". Its a sticky situation indeed. The problem is that while the Liberals are not voting the Conservatives are pushing through the Bush agenda in Canada. Its madness, and it has to stop.

The NDP and the Block, are standing up for Canadians on the issues. They know they have no chance of winning an election and know that the Liberals will take the fall for anything that goes wrong because they have the majority of votes in the opposition. They feel free to vote there conscience and win over more votes from the Liberals by looking like they are standing up for Canadians. This should sit very well with the conservatives, because its eroding support for the Liberals there biggest contender in the next election, making it even easier for them to steal a majority.

Where does that leave us, the citizens of this confused and intentionally made ignorant country. In the dark unfortunately. With no way to effect change on our countries government, policies, regulations, trade deals, etc, etc, etc, we are left to play the part of slaves. Get a job, work yourself to death for a lifetime and suck it up. Under this kind of government Medicare, education, job security, social service, infrastructure and the like are privileges that can be taken away at the wave of the corporate governments big stick. Instead this money, YOUR MONEY, goes to support increased militarization, unending war, corporate profits and trying to find the easiest, cheapest and fastest way to solve every problem without concern for the health of people, society, culture or the environment.

Such is the government which we have elected and which will continue to be elected until we force reform in this mixed up country.