Mulcair hopes budget votes will stoke public outrage

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mentalfloss

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Jun 28, 2010
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Federal Budget 2012: Thomas Mulcair hopes omnibus budget votes will stoke public outrage

OTTAWA—New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair hopes a long night of parliamentary voting will help Canadians remember what is being lost in the sweeping legislative changes included in the omnibus budget bill.

“We’re hoping to be reminding the public that this institution has gone through 150 years because we’ve respected the fact that the public is heard here,” Mulcair told reporters after the weekly NDP caucus meeting on Parliament Hill.

“Stephen Harper is the first prime minister in Canadian history who believes he is the master of Parliament, not its servant, and we’ll be reminding Canadians of that as well.”

MPs on both sides of the House of Commons are getting ready for some 24 hours of continuous voting on amendments to Bill C-38 that will begin at 5 p.m. on Wednesday.

Opposition MPs say the bill, which will alter some 70 laws touching on everything from environmental assessment to Employment Insurance reform, goes far beyond the subject matter of budget legislation and is a way for the Conservatives to usher in controversial major social and economic changes without proper scrutiny.

“Canadians are going to start to realize that Conservative arrogance has removed a lot of things that we used to rely on,” Mulcair said.

“The losses that are going to go through with this budget bill will last in terms of the ability to provide good stewardship for the environment — that’s something that people will see echoing for the next three years,” Mulcair said when asked whether Canadians would remember the message delivered by a round of voting by the time the next federal election rolls around in 2015.

“It’s just chance, but there was an oil spill in Alberta last week that a lot of people were able to connect with and say, ‘That’s going to be lost. The ability to have even a proper assessment before you allow a pipeline to go through rivers and lakes: this is what’s going to be lost.’”

Canada News: Federal Budget 2012: Thomas Mulcair hopes omnibus budget votes will stoke public outrage
 
Kakato

Kakato

Time Out
Jun 10, 2009
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A proper assesment? You have no idea what go's on buddy before anyone sets foot on a ROW.

Nice how you slipped in the oil spill though.

You guys hate western Canada so much then maybe you should seperate from us.

Kick us out.
 
Machjo

Machjo

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Oct 19, 2004
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This is ridiculous. I do not want MPs voting on important bills while they're half asleep. If they were responsible, they'd break it up so they can go home and get a good night's sleep each night so as to be able to think lucidly every day to vote responsibly. It's just like a pilot or a MD. For any important decision, you want to make sure you're fully alert. Having Mps vote wired on caffeine or falling asleep does not raise my trust in their competence in the least.

Idiots.
 
MapleDog

MapleDog

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Jun 1, 2012
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Machjo said:
This is ridiculous. I do not want MPs voting on important bills while they're half asleep. If they were responsible, they'd break it up so they can go home and get a good night's sleep each night so as to be able to think lucidly every day to vote responsibly. It's just like a pilot or a MD. For any important decision, you want to make sure you're fully alert. Having Mps vote wired on caffeine or falling asleep does not raise my trust in their competence in the least.

Idiots.
Click to expand...
But thats the genius part of their evil plan,get them so tired,they'll vote for anything.
 
CDNBear

CDNBear

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Sep 24, 2006
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What? They're debating the big scary bill? They've proposed 800 amendments?

I thought the big scary bill was the end of all that? I thought we were on the road to Nazism?

What happened?
 
B00Mer

B00Mer

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Goober

Goober

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Jan 23, 2009
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The Opposition should refuse to attend Parliament. When the bell rings only the Cons will be present-
Row upon row of empty seats.
Now that would bring more attention than using the same tactics the Cons did in 2000 when they proposed a massive number amendments that included punctuation.
 
mentalfloss

mentalfloss

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‘Night owl’ Tories methodically thwart attempts to alter budget

“Mr. Hawn, Mr. Alexander, Ms. Rempel, Mr. Rickford, M. Goguen, Ms. Findlay Delta-Richmond East, Mr. Del Mastro...”

The names of members of Parliament reel out like a metronome, hypnotic as MPs are a quarter of the way through what is expected to be at least 24 consecutive hours of voting.

With the smell of breakfast wafting into the Commons bleary-eyed MPs continued to methodically rise and fall from their seats as they voted on 871 opposition motions – grouped into 159 voteable packages – that are designed to thwart, or at least publicize, the Harper government’s sprawling omnibus budget implementation bill.

The legislation, dubbed the Jobs, Growth and Long Term Prosperity Act by the ever-marketing Conservatives, contains a bewildering maze of changes to dozens of statutes, ranging from employment insurance and public pensions to environmental assessments, border security and spy agency oversight.

Critics say such omnibus bills amount to a massive abuse of Parliament – an argument a young Stephen Harper once made with some conviction as a backbench Reform MP.

Now his Conservative government says the 400-page bill is “responsible, necessary and will make Canada’s economy stronger,” in the words of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

And they don’t want a single comma altered by the elected representatives on the opposition benches.

Each new round of voting began with a round of applause from the New Democrat benches and ended with whoops and cheers from the Conservatives whose majority might means they’ve voted down every motion so far.

This morning, a quick burst of song broke through the steady hum of background chatter as MPs serenaded New Democrat MP Hong Mai with “Happy Birthday.”

The Quebec MP turns 39 today – at least in the world off Parliament Hill. Inside the Commons, the calendar continues to read June 13 as the rest of the country woke to Thursday’s dawn.

“So if we continue voting like this in the [House of Commons], there’ll be no b-day for me this year?,” Mr. Mai tweeted.

Wednesday won’t end for MPs until the last vote is counted and the House adjourned sometime this evening or early Friday morning.

By then, clerks in the House of Commons will have recited almost 50,000 names in a repetitive roll call, each as predictable as the last.

“I think everyone’s pretty pumped, at least on the NDP side, about standing up for Canadians and making sure they have a voice here today,” New Democrat John Rafferty said as the House of Commons bells rang to start the marathon.

MPs’ desks were littered with books and papers, laptops and notebooks, pillows and even a couple of stuffed animals. Michel Rempel, the dimpled Tory from Calgary, had a half dozen containers of brightly coloured Play-Doh for amusement, while cabinet member Rona Ambrose was wrapped in a Hudson’s Bay blanket.

The first vote took just over seven minutes to complete, each MP rising and sitting again at their seat, with the Conservatives prevailing 150-133.

The disciplined Tories could have flexed their muscles, but elected to split their caucus into 11 groups and rest out one for each 30-minute block of votes, thus reducing their margin of victory.

It made no difference. The outcome is preordained, if not the timing.

Green party Leader Elizabeth May combined with the NDP and Liberals to propose hundreds of amendments, and they were pared down and grouped by the Speaker to ease things along.

Just sorting out the 871 motions, reading them into the record and a series of theatrical but otherwise meaningless voice votes chewed up four hours Wednesday night before the recorded votes even commenced.

Deputy Speaker Barry Devolin received a round of applause from the couple of dozen MPs on hand when he read Motion 500, but the House fell back into a torpor as the remaining 371 droned out.

In a rare break from the continual voting at about 4 a.m. ET, Interim Liberal Leader Bob Rae asked Speaker Andrew Scheer why the parliamentary secretary to the Government House Leader was conversing with him during a vote.

“If there are representations being made, the whole House needs to hear them,” Mr. Rae said. Mr. Sheer replied that ”no representations were made – just a question about clarification as to the process of tonight’s vote.”

Liberal MP Denis Codere pressed the issue by suggesting that someone from the government speaking to the Speaker during a vote was ”starting to look like instructions.”
Mr. Sheer replied that was not the case and swiftly called for the next vote.

Zorya Baskier-Pasternak, 22, was in the gallery with friends Sarah Helmer and James Thomson-Kacki, giddily taking in the seemingly endless dirge before the voting ever began.

“It’s great,” said the Winnipeg dancer, in Ottawa for a national dance festival. “I’ve never been to Parliament before, never seen a debate. I think everyone should see how [screwed] up it is. Because this is how we run our country!”

Outside, a half dozen Conservatives stood near the MPs’ entrance smoking cigars, the fragrant clouds hanging in the night air all the way to foot of the Peace Tower.

Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, his jacket off and tie askew, hurried through a basement corridor for an office pit stop before midnight.

“I’m a night owl,” Mr. Kenney laughed. “I usually leave the office at three or four [a.m.], so I might was well get some work done.”

‘Night owl’ Tories methodically thwart attempts to alter budget - The Globe and Mail
 
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