Prime Minister Politicises Volunteer Awards

The Right Honourable Stephen Harper P.C., M.P. (Calgary Southwest), the Prime Minister, has politicised what was supposed to be a non-political volunteerism award ceremony. The guest list prepared by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada would have seen five invitations sent to Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, and another two invitations sent to the Liberal Party.

Non-partisanship of Awards

Awards to Canadians should be a non-partisan and non-political affair. This is also why Her Majesty the Queen of Canada is the fount of honour in the Canadian honours system, and why the country's highest honours are awarded by His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston C.C., C.M.M., C.O.M., C.D., the Governor General and Commander-in-Chief in and over Canada.

If there are going to be some select awards administered and bestowed upon Canadians by departments themselves, and in particular from the Office of the Prime Minister, then there needs to be special care taken to ensure that partisanship does not colour the awards and ceremonies. Canadians deserve to be able to look at any award as a state honour, and not as a political one.

There were concerns raised early on in the development of these awards that even the name of the awards (i.e., the "Prime Minister's Volunteer Awards") could cause Canadians to perceive the awards in a political way. Her Majesty's Government for Canada apparently ignored the warnings. Later on, when HRSDC proposed the names of some possible masters of ceremony for the event, these recommendations were ditched in favour of The Honourable Senator Nicole Eaton (Ontario). Senator Eaton has previously stirred controversy with references to the beaver, Canada's national symbol, as a "dentally defective rat," and with conedemnation of environmental groups.

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For Gods sake, so they called them the Prime Ministers Volunteer Awards.
I see nothing wrong with that at all anymore than having something named
the Governor Generals Award. The Award title symbolizes the office not the
person holding the office. I am not a Harper fan in the least but I don't see
this a making it political at all, I see it as a gesture toward people who do
worth while things in our communities. If we are going to get this picky why
not have volunteers stay home and forget awards period.
My wife has a Governor Generals Award for community service from when the
country was a hundred and twenty five years old, its nice to be recognized but
it does not mean the person is affiliated with the government in power it was
just a nice gesture. Honestly some people see the boogie man in teas leaves
at times

It was not just the matter of the award's name.

It was the fact that HRSDC, administering the awards, recommended that two opposition parties also be invited to the ceremonies (including local members of the House of Commons for the award recipients), and the Office of the Prime Minister dropped the invites and made it a Conservative-only affair. It's the fact that HRSDC recommended non-partisan masters of ceremony for the event, and the Office of the Prime Minister instead selected a current Conservative senator (and a controversial senator, nonetheless). Those are the issues here; the fact that the award's name is a political one is a secondary issue.

Look! There's a dog with a fluffy tail!