Pre-Game Action Before Your Olympics, Perhaps?

Cross posted at Sister Sage’s Musings

Yes, nice fun ReformaTory Games only Stevie can play, although, thus far he hasn’t been successful, has he?

Haiti became the would be perfect crisis for him but, obviously never raised his numbers, in fact, according to most polls as of late, Stevie’s Harpercon numbers continue on that downhill spiral.

The anti-prorogation rallies across Canada were a success; many of the venues even acknowledging the plight of Haitians.

Also, the fact is most Canadians acknowledge and expect their politicians to react quickly toward a crisis in another part of the world or domestically. Regardless of whether or not Stevie remained at the top, prorogation or no prorogation, it is his job to react quickly.  In fact, I would presume that one of the reasons for Stevie’s dismal showing as of late would be that Canadians would have liked to see parliament reopen for this crisis. As Jane Taber had recently asked Jason Kenney on an episode of Question Period, ‘can’t the Haitian crisis be handled with parliament sitting?’ To which Kenney showed a sudden need for speech therapy.

Furthermore, none of the opposition parties came out to criticise the Harpercons for their handling of the Haitian crisis. In fact, the opposition parties are doing their part to help Haiti as well.

Now, the trap. It would seem that Stevie & the Harpercons want to cancel March & Easter Breaks: a time MPs generally go back home to their families and check out their constituencies. After that prorogation ruckus, It would be  assumed that most Canadians would want this to happen. Certainly Conservative Canadians who were against the prorogation of parliament would be for this.

Traditionally, the parliamentary calendar does remain the same after prorogation of parliament.  If the PM wishes to change the calendar, all opposition parties must vote unanimously for this change.

According to Harpercons, they say there will be just too much work and they must make up for the time he prorogued parliament. Typical Stevie and his Kingly ways: parliament must only operate when it’s convenient for Stevie.

“Instead of playing silly games, the PM should recall Parliament right away to deal with all the important issues facing Canadians,” says Karl Belanger , spokesperson for NDP Leader Jack Layton.

Indeed. I was waiting for something like that to be said, by someone; anyone, really. This is exactly what Canadian voters should be thinking. Be for or against the suspension of spring breaks, but the fact of the matter is if they’re falling so far behind on their work, perhaps parliament shouldn’t be prorogued. Perhaps Stevie should call everyone back to parliament as soon as possible. The Liberals are already there doing some work and being productive. I’m pretty sure the N.D.P. and the Bloc Quebecois would head  back to Ottawa if parliament were called to session again.

Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale mocked the Conservatives’ sudden change of heart from demanding time to “recalibrate” to now wanting to toil straight through.

“It’s clearly a government in full panic mode . . . trying to scramble out of a mess they created,” Goodale said in an interview Wednesday night.

In spite of what Goodale said, it is likely that the Liberals will entertain Harpercon propositions. Liberal support which has been going up since prorogation, is quite fragile and can change at any time. I even suspect those so-called centrists or small c conservatives who have been supporting Stevie and the Harpercons are looking for a reason to give support back to him. According to many pollsters and pundits, Liberal support is only up because of Stevie’s latest high-handed games, not because of a sudden Iggy love-fest.  In fact, some may argue that it’s not the act of proroguation of parliament itself but more the underhanded way Stevie went about it

“It’s completely a reaction to Stephen Harper,” Bricker, president of Ipsos-Reid, said in a Jan. 24 interview.

“It’s not because people have a really big issue with proroguing the House,” Bricker said.

“It’s really the (political) games, that’s what gets under people’s skin. That’s what you are seeing the effects of (in the poll).”

Well, I would say the act of prorogation itself did play a large part in the recent polls. There are many Canadians calling for parliamentary reform so that prorogation can’t happen again or, at the very least, much more difficult to do so. I think most who attended the rallies and joined the facebook group would agree with me. Most certainly the conservative voters who spoke out against prorogation would agree with me here.

The question becomes will the opposition parties vote unanymously for this calendar change? According to senior Harpercons, they strongly believe that will be on board with this. Gordon O’Connor said,

there is no reason for the House of Commons to take constituency breaks during these weeks. Quite frankly, we would be surprised if the Opposition disagreed.

Gee, Gordo, no time to spend with constituents?  Just because your boss can’t deal with them doesn’t mean the others might not want to.  Sometimes, it’s a good idea to be in touch with the citizens of the country you lead.  You Harpercons would know that if you only made some semblance of effort to open your emails, even if it is a form letter.

That aside: the trap Stevie set is not whether or not anyone will go along with his proposal to skip holiday weeks this spring; there surely will be. However, as mentioned above, the parliamentary  calendar remains the same with or without prorogation and to change it requires a unanimous vote; as in no dissention. I have doubts about that kind of vote being unanimous.  The Bloc Quebecois hasn’t said much since prorogation and I guess if he feels Stevie’s proposal is in the best interests of Quebecers he’ll go along with it.  It looks like the Liberals will go along with it. Will the N.D.P. ? Anybody’s guess.

If we remember one of Stevie’s tactics for remaining so successful is that he knew the game of divide and conquer. He would keep the opposition parties divided. The reason the cross Canada rallies last month were so successful was that the politicians from the opposition were united for that short period.  The picture on the front page of the Montreal Gazette showing Thomas Mulcair, Gilles Duceppe and Marc Garneau (we only see his arm at the other side of Mulcair, but still)  walking side by side leading the anti-prorogation procession through the streets of Downtown Montreal to Philips’ Square.  Our opposition MPs were leading us in unison.

I am also realistic enough to know that this unification was fragile at best.  Unfortunately, I had already seen Mulcair take some shots at the Liberals on Question Period since the rallies.   Right now, as a whole, the opposition is not united or feeling particularly collaborative; this already doesn’t look good for a unanimous vote on calendar change. Also, no matter which party votes for or against the Harpercon proposed calendar change, columnists, pundits, bloggers and of course, the rest of Canadian voters; left or right will no doubt either praise or criticize whatever was voted for and by whom.   Yikes! This isn’t going to be pretty no matter how we look at it.

That is why, Stevie will choose to play the tactician; it works for him. As pointed out earlier, his proposal will have succeeded in dividing the opposition and Canadians; a formula that could raise his numbers back up again. Make no mistake, he doesn’t care whether there is work that will have fallen behind`and catching up with it.  He will have divided and then conquered. Or will they? Do I dare hope for the miracle that the albeit uneasy peace between opposition parties to continue and that they will see right through Stevie’s tactical game? If he were really concerned about being behind on work, he wouldn’t have prorogued parliament in the first place or he would unprorogue parliament as soon as possible.

If we thought this was going to be a bumpy ride; prepare for more of  St-Stevie’s antics between now and March 3; including the reading of the budget, which is sure to be a poison pill.

Valentine’s Day Card campaign clarification

There was room for confusion in my last post.  The Valentine’s Day Cards mailing address is actually a CAPP Ottawa mailing address and CAPP Ottawa has lined up a horse and carriage and are working on a volunteer Cupid. We will make a spectacle of the delivery so that the press continues to cover the issue.

The FB Group is called Valentine’s Day Cards for Democracy but more important is getting the word out with the Event Invitation on that page. If you’re not on FB, our mailing address is P.O. Box 693, Osgoode, Ontario K0A 2W0.

Please help spread this initiative through the various regional sites and with reposts on the CAPP main site. Please collect cards from everyone you know and send them on. Together, we can make this a news worthy event.

Thanks for supporting the cause.

Valentine’s Day Cards for Democracy campaign

CAPP Ottawa wants to heap a pile of Valentine’s Day cards (“I love Democracy” and the like) on Mr. Harper but we need your help.

So far there are only 84 members at the Valentine’s Day Cards for Democracy FB Group. Out of 222,384!?!? Please join the FB Group “Valentine’s Day Cards for Democracy” and forward the Event Invitation to your contacts.

Collect cards from family, friends and co-workers to send on.

Please post the link to your regional CAPP sites. Please repost this request regularly on the CAPP sites since we only have a short window of opportunity for this initiative. Thanks for your help, and let’s get those cards rolling. Cheers.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=449845460461&ref=mf#!/event.php?eid=459823830166&index=1

Some Website Housekeeping

In the interests of transparency, I just wanted to explain a few changes to this website’s comment functions.

You’ll notice that I’ve already added the requirement to login/register at the site to leave a comment. This was necessary due to several instances yesterday where totally inappropriate comments were left by anonymous persons. This restriction will remain indefinitely.

In addition, for most of the day today all comments will have to be approved by administrators before they appear.

Tomorrow’s Rally In Montreal and Media Failures

Crossposted at Sister Sage’s Musings

Yes! We have been blessed!!   Gracing Montrealers (& the rest of Canada who will see pictures &/or film footage for that matter) with their presence will be Marc Garneau, Liberal MP & the Quebec Lieutenant; Thomas Mulcair, the one and only Montreal NDP Mp, and Professor Daniel Weinstock of Universite de Montreal will be speaking.  Also, songs and dancing from the Montreal Raging Grannies. There is another group (I’m sorry, their name escapes me right now).

I am especially happy that Gilles Duceppe will be making an appearance. No, I’m not a separatist, but as most of my readers know, I had been concerned about the lack of interest amongst French Quebecers up until now. Whoever succeeded in reaching and inviting Gilles Duceppe, Thank You/ Merci beaucoup! C’est tres apprecie!

I was also concerned about the seemingly laissez-faire attitude of Gilles Duceppe, who at the time, only gave us a tweet of a reaction from his Twitter account. I always believed if Gilles Duceppe came out and reacted as he did when he announced support and cooperation with last year’s coalition government, all Quebecers would be enthusiastic about protesting. The rally for the coalition attracted quite a few folks, included separatists at Guy Favreau Centre last year.

That post did get quite a reaction over at noprorogue.ca.  Quite a bit of anger really. I (as well as others, I’m sure ) would have liked that anger channeled into what Stevie did, to all of us, no matter where we lived, what political affiliation or what language we spoke.

Now, it looks promising for tomorrow. I am now confidant we will have a great turn out. I also know there will be a great turn out at most of the venues, anyway. Sixty towns and cities is already a big thing.

Yah, Blogging Tories and Tommy “I like prorogation because it means no new taxes”  Schnurmacher, of CJAD 800am (Astral radio, naturally, just one of the right arms of the Harpercons & Tax-phobic Tommy & Chickenhawk Ric Petersen & his unabashed support for Blathering Blatchford are the cheerleaders) & Harpercon shill and others like him: get with the technology. This is the new activism. Most Canadians don’t want prorogation.

And Tommy, when you can’t spin, spoonfeed, or deflect and distract: move on to something else. Don’t berate, shove words down the throats of and call callers despicable who disagree with you, and don’t humiliate your co-workers, just because they joined a facebook group you don’t like. there, Tommy! Here’s a hint, you really should apologize on the air for your ill behavior as of late.

Speaking of  Conservative media against prorogation: I can’t believe I’m saying this: Congratz to Ryan Doyle for speaking on the air against prorogation. I sincerely hope that you will attend a rally near you.  As stated before, the cross country rallies need all affiliations; that means Conservatives welcome.  Quite a coup and a rarety: a conservative talk show host surely of a minority of  his brethren.

Speaking of Conservatives,  we invited Conservative MPs, local politicians and senators: they have not responded. I do not want to hear that this is an exclusively lefty movement.

Hope to see large numbers at all the venues tomorrow.

Esperons de vous voir nombreux a tous les evenements demain!

Live Coverage of NoProrogue Rallies

Thousands of Canadians are expected to join real-world rallies protesting the prorogation of Parliament on Saturday. For those who are not able to attend, or do not have a rally in their city, www.noprorogue.ca will be hosting live coverage of the event.

No Prorogue will be hosting an online forum that includes visitors to www.noprorogue.ca, Twitter users who mention #noprorogue, and all text messages send to 347-614-2765 from rally participants themselves.

Coverage begins at 8:30am Eastern and will continue non-stop until the final rallies have completed on the west coast. From sea to sea to sea Canadians will be making themselves heard on Saturday Janurary 23rd.

Kevin O’Donnell

http://kodonnell.ca

Montreal No Prorogue Rally Details

A short march and a rally with a few very short speeches.

I do hope that those in and around Montreal will come in great numbers despite the early hour. At least (knock wood), the weather should cooperate.

This is a non-partisan event. Everyone is welcome, no matter what affiliation they may be with:  the Left or the Right; Conservative or not: French speaking or not; Separatists or federalists; it doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, ol’ Stevie has stripped every Canadian of their Democratic rights.

Sidenote: Another interesting read would be over at Scott  Ross’s, where he actually details  how much prorogation is costing the tax payers. Those of the Conservative persuasion who claim to abhor government wasted spending: Scott Ross’ post is worth a read.

CAPP Welcomes 200,000th Member

Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament
Edmonton, Alberta,
Canada

Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CANADIAN ANTI-PROROGATION GROUP GAINS 200,000th MEMBER

17 January 2010 – Hundreds of thousands of Canadians are celebrating a major milestone today as the Facebook group Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament added its 200,000th member. Excitement continues to grow for the nationwide rallies scheduled for January 23rd in over 40 communities.

The non-partisan group has mushroomed into a political phenomenon in Canada, gaining thousands of new members daily since it was started on December 30th, 2009. The initial goal was to encourage Members of Parliament to “Get Back to Work” on the Hill on January 25th, the day the session was supposed to resume. With opposition MPs vowing to return, an emergency Conservative caucus meeting planned for the 22nd, and a 10 point drop in the polls for the ruling party signifying widespread public awareness and disapproval of prorogation, the group has exceeded its initial goals.

“It’s encouraging to see how many Canadians recognize prorogation as emblematic of larger issues within our democracy,” says group founder and University of Alberta graduate student, Christopher White.

The group has become a hot centre for debate on a range political issues in Canada, from senate reform to environmental policy. Christopher believes that while the focus should remain on prorogation, the momentum built should continue long after the 25th.
“We’re at a unique time when Canadians are coming together and working on solutions. This could be a watershed moment in our political scene,” he says. Christopher encourages members to write to their MPs again and propose legislation limiting when and how prorogation can be called.

Everyone in Canada is watching closely to see if the huge numbers of Facebook protestors translate into political action, with Anti-Proroguing demonstrations in cities and towns across the country planned for Saturday, January 23, 2010. People looking for information regarding the rallies are encouraged to go to www.noprorogue.ca.

Media contact: For more information contact:

Christopher White (clwhite@ualberta.ca)
Shilo Davis (shiloadavis@gmail.com)

Calgarians Against Proroguing Parliament

Calgarians Against Proroguing Parliament

Rally Date: Saturday, January 23rd
Rally Time: 1:00pm MST
Rally Location: Stephen Harper’s Riding Office [Outside]
1600 – 90th Avenue SW, Calgary

CALGARY – Calgarians Against Proroguing Parliament, a non-partisan group of concerned citizens, will be gathering to deliver a petition expressing our concerns to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s riding office on January 23rd, 2010.

This group, consisting of citizens who have come together via social media such as Facebook, Twitter and traditional media, is concerned that the decision to prorogue Parliament is anti-democratic and sets a bad precedent for the future.  As Mr. Harper himself said while in Opposition:

“When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent is frankly when it’s rapidly losing its moral authority to govern.”

- Stephen Harper, Canadian Press, April 18, 2005

Historically Parliament is prorogued in one of two circumstances.  The first is upon completion of the sessions’ business, a precedent which does not apply as 36 government and many private member’s bills were still on the order paper at the time of the decision.  The second is upon a change in the governing party’s leadership, which also clearly does not apply.

To date Prime Minister Harper has failed to offer a satisfactory reason for proroguing Parliament. As a result, Calgarians Against Proroguing Parliament will be joining thousands of other Canadians to hold Prime Minister Harper accountable for this decision and demand that he and his fellow Members of Parliament return to work on January 25th.

We encourage other concerned citizens to join us on Saturday, January 23rd, sign the petition and make their concerns known.

We can be found on Facebook here.

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How to get there:

Due to limited parking availability, please try to avoid driving to the rally if possible. Bike, walk or take Calgary Transit.

Calgary Transit [From Heritage Station] Saturday January 23
Bus – 80 – Oakridge / Acadia – Direction: SB @Heritage Stn
12:25pm Depart SB @ Heritage Stn (Stop ID: 5762)
12:29pm Arrive WB 90 Av@14 St SW (Stop ID: 6431)

Parking is limited at Glenmore Landing. If lot is too crowded, nearby residential streets may have spots available.

If you are driving or need a ride, please use this Facebook Discussion to coordinate ridesharing, or the comments section here if you do not have Facebook.

Looking forward to meeting you all on January 23rd!

Parlez-vous francais?

There is a need here at NoProrogue.ca to have as much as possible of the site’s content (informational pages, not blog posts) translated into french. If you are able to help out in the this regard, please let the site administrators know via the contact form.

Merci!