Because its no different that the abuses of our political system under the majorities ofChretien, Mulroney and Trudeau.
Of course it is, what went on in the past was ad hoc, what's going on now is unstated official policy. It was the gaps in the systems that were taken advantage of in the past, this government has gone out of it's way broaden the old ones and to create new gaps in oversight and transparency then use them for it's own advantage. Comparing the Liberals to the Conservatives is like comparing a Jamaican Posse with the Medellin Drug Cartel. The government we have now is almost solely focused on doing as much as possible out of the light of scrutiny.
You mean when the Conservatives held power at the whim of the NDP, Bloc and Liberals?
I didn't say the Conservatives aren't very skilled at playing the game, I said it hasn't been for our benefit. The very first action of Steven Harper was to bring in a former
Liberal cabinet minister from Nanaimo or somewhere, David Wilson or something I forget his name, probably to get the scoop on how the Liberals got around the accountability issue.
Again this is nothing new in Canadian politics: its all about spin and manipulation. Chretien was a master at both divide and conquer and deflecting attention from where it would be most damaging to his party. Trudeau and Mulroney were equally and differed mainly in style.
It is in scale and focus, what we have now is a federal government that represents even narrower special interests than the last government and does it in a way highly corrosive to the best long term interests of the nation. What happened in the past was in spite of the controls in place to prevent abuse of power, what we have now is in lieu of those controls.
I will agree with the Liberal people on this point: anyone offended by what a racist twit like Heddy Fry does, needs to gain some perspective.
She didn't create the disrespectful tone of the current Parliament, the Conservatives did, there are potentially Conservative MPs in the House who are only there because some of their campaign workers
illegally posed as elections officials to misdirect voters the party went to a fair degree of cost and time to identify as non-supporters in the first place. As I said, respect is a two way street and the Steven Harper government hasn't had enough respect for the citizens of Canada to keep us honestly informed on important issues like the economy, environment, the war in Afghanistan, and more. It's probably engaged in election fraud in more than one case as with in-and-out financing and nothing meaningful has been done to bring them to account...and now a few foolish Liberals are threatening our tradition and honor by making a stupid gesture?
You're right as Canadians we truly need to gain some perspective.