The title of this post is likely known to most. It means taking actions that will do nothing to avert disaster. And that is precisely what Doug Ford is doing as his response to the Greenbelt theft, the scandal that has a tenacious grip on his government and just won’t
Continue readingTag: Paul Calandra
Politics and its Discontents: And Speaking of Government Cheerleaders
Yesterday, I wrote about chief Harper sycophant Pierre Poilivre’s abuse of the taxpayer through his vanity productions promoting the greatness of Dear Leader under the pretext of disseminating information about government programs. A flurry of criticism of this contemptuous behaviour yielded no signs of contrition from the minister of Democratic
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Ghastly Con Nightmare Before Christmas
Golly. When I think of the Cons reciting "Twas the Night Before Christmas" all I can think of is "The Nightmare before Christmas."Because Christmas and the brutish Harperland were definitely not made for each other.But believe it or not, the real version, is even SCARIER !!!!Read more »
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Tale Of Two Parliamentary Secretaries*
What do Paul Calandra and Dean Del Mastro have in common? Well, let’s answer that question by first stating the obvious. Both are of Italian heritage; both have served as Prime Minister Harper’s Parliamentary Secretary; both have made blubbering speeches in the House of Commons; and, surprise surprise, both have
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Conservatives Kill NDP Motion To Civilize Question Period
On Tuesday, the House voted 144-132 to defeat an NDP motion seeking to empower the Speaker to police irrelevant answers during Question Period. The post Conservatives Kill NDP Motion To Civilize Question Period appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Bizarre Conservative MP Paul Calandra’s Wikipedia Page Vandalized
Someone really pissed off has edited Paul Calandra’s Wikipedia page to reflect the Conservative MP’s bizarre obsession with Israel. The post Bizarre Conservative MP Paul Calandra’s Wikipedia Page Vandalized appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingCanadian Political Viewpoints: To Hell With Tradition
Source: CBC News: Speaker Andrew Scheer Warns Mulcair and Others over Bias ClaimsSource: Library of Parliament: Standing Orders, Chapter One, Section 11.2 Anyone who has bothered to turn on the news during Question Period over the last, oh I’d say nine years, probably finds themselves in a continuing series of
Continue readingCanadian Political Viewpoints: To Hell With Tradition
Source: CBC News: Speaker Andrew Scheer Warns Mulcair and Others over Bias Claims
Source: Library of Parliament: Standing Orders, Chapter One, Section 11.2
Anyone who has bothered to turn on the news during Question Period over the last, oh I’d say nine years, probably finds themselves in a continuing series of disbelief when the whole spectacle is over. This wasn’t a trend that was started by the Harper Conservatives, but it was certainly perfected by them. Especially when one views the actions of one Paul Calandra.
Calandra rose out of the fall of Dean Del Mastro taking Dean’s place as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister; or more aptly, the PM’s mouthpiece when the PM isn’t in the House of Commons. Calandra made name, and a reputation, for himself when he served as Harper’s ‘deflector shield’ with regards to questions surrounding Mike Duffy and the Senate Expenses Scandal.
Calandra’s non-answers, outright dodges, and ridiculous non-sequiturs involving his family and pizza shops set a new low for decorum within the House of Commons. When it was all said and done, I think most Canadians thought the bar could not get any lower. It seems we all completed underestimated Paul Calandra.
Last Tuesday, Tom Mulcair rose to ask questions on Canada’s involvement in fighting ISIS/ISIL in Iraq. Enter Paul Calandra, who rejected the premise of the question put to him and instead went off on a tangent about Israel and whether or not Mulcair agreed with a position posted by a reported party fundraiser on Facebook.
Mulcair appropriately laughed off Calandra’s first response; even putting in a jibe about understanding Calandra’s confusion with I countries in the Middle East, but the question was about Iraq not Israel. Mulcair repeated the question, and again Calandra rose and provided more or less the same response.
Mulcair appealed to the Speaker at this point, noting that there are rules regarding relevance and asked that they be enforced. Again, Calandra spouted non-sense with response to the question put to him.
Of course, this led to Mulcair making a comment with regards to the Speaker’s impartiality (or lack thereof), which led to the Speaker finally taking action but against Mulcair and not Calandra. Mulcair was stripped of his remaining questions for the day, and Question Period moved on.
What followed was quite the media firestorm.
Numerous political reporters called it an unbelievable display, unheard of before in Canadian Parliamentary history. And then came the chorus of talking heads: some of the side of Mulcair, and others on the side of Speaker Andrew Scheer. (Unsurprisingly, no one really rushed to Calandra’s side.)
And so began a question of who was in the right and who was in the wrong.
Many condemned Mulcair for challenging the Speaker’s impartiality; while others agreed that Mulcair was right to challenge Scheer on the issue. So, how is it possible that so many of Canada’s best informed political minds could have such differing views? Surely, the laws of the land that govern the role of the Speaker and the House of Commons would prevent any sort of casual interpretation?
Well, written meet tradition.
Mulcair’s defenders were quick to point to House Standing Order 11.2,which states:
It’s not uncommon, and Scheer has done it often, for Speakers to reference past Speakers and their decisions when they make a judgement on something. That creates a lot of precedent that often flies in the face of the written rules and powers for the Speaker. Just because a Speaker in 1976 chose to read a rule a certain way, or ignore it, doesn’t exactly mean the same interpretation holds in 2014 for a similar, yet different, situation.
That brings us to the final question: What do we do about it?
Well, the NDP is trying to bring change forward, with a motion introduced this week to give the Speaker explicit authority to act during Question Period. However, the Conservatives have attacked the motion.
House Leader Peter Van Loan has argued about the motion turning Question Period into a “one way street” that would tie the hands of the government.
Well, here’s the good for the goose and gander argument. If the Conservatives defend Scheer’s inaction based on convention and tradition, then they need to look back to the Speaker James Jerome. In 1974, Jerome ended the practice of allowing Parliamentary Secretaries (like Paul Calandra) to pose questions to the opposition.
Furthermore, if we want to stick to convention, Ministers are conventionally not allowed to ask questions since they often provide answers on behalf of the government; the rules do not forbid Ministers asking questions, but convention says that only Private Members should do so.
So, conventionally speaking, the government side of the House shouldn’t be asking questions from the front bench (Cabinet) at least.
Van Loan, and his party it seems, want to have their cake and eat it too in this regard. Let us keep this part of the conventional tradition, but disregard this other. Either they have to commit wholeheartedly to whole bundled mess that is Parliamentary Tradition, or they have to work with the Opposition Parties to codify new and clear rules.
The NDP motion is looking doomed to fail thanks to no support from the Conservative bench. So for now, we’re stuck with the notion of conventional tradition as the guiding principle for how our Parliamentary system is administered.
The bigger problem, as I think we’ve illustrated, is not that the Speaker actually needs more powers (they already have them), they just need the will to exercise them.
People have already drawn comparisons to our Speaker and the Speaker of the House in the UK Parliament. Many have linked to the Speaker shutting down speakers from the floor, including the Prime Minister. Yes, Parliamentary systems evolve and we should be looking to other Parliaments to see what sort of improvements have been made and should be adapted here.
But until we accept that written rule and authority has more credence than past ‘convention’, all the reform in the world won’t do a thing.
Canadian Political Viewpoints: To Hell With Tradition
Source: CBC News: Speaker Andrew Scheer Warns Mulcair and Others over Bias ClaimsSource: Library of Parliament: Standing Orders, Chapter One, Section 11.2 Anyone who has bothered to turn on the news during Question Period over the last, oh I’d say nine years, probably finds themselves in a continuing series of
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Harper’s small but important lie on Iraq
Harper got caught in a lie important enough that the US Secretary of Defence’s office took the somewhat rare move of embarrassing Harper by telling everyone it was indeed a lie. Namely, as reported by Global News, Harper made something of a …
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Harper’s small but important lie on Iraq
Harper got caught in a lie important enough that the US Secretary of Defence’s office took the somewhat rare move of embarrassing Harper by telling everyone it was indeed a lie. Namely, as reported by Global News, Harper made something of a big show that the US was asking for Canadian
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Harper’s small but important lie on Iraq
Harper got caught in a lie important enough that the US Secretary of Defence’s office took the somewhat rare move of embarrassing Harper by telling everyone it was indeed a lie. Namely, as reported by Global News, Harper made something of a big show that the US was asking for Canadian
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Paul Calandra and the Little PMO Monsters
Well last night I brought you the sad story of the Con clown Paul Calandra who has been turning Parliament into a freak show, with the help of the Speaker who claims he just can't control him.And I used this graphic to try to illustrate how Calandras's insane replies to
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Paul Calandra Apologizes
After his disgraceful behaviour the other day in the House during Question Period, Parliamentary Secretary and ardent Harper loyalist Paul Callandra issued a ‘tearful’ apology this morning. For me, his motives are suspect: Recommend this Post
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Why the Con Speaker Andrew Scheer Should Resign
Ever since Andrew Scheer was appointed Speaker he has presided over the slow death of Canada's Parliament. He has allowed his Cons to turn it into a fascist circus. He has allowed them to get away with not answering questions, and to make a mockery out of our democracy.The way he allowed
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Con Speaker and the Death of Parliament
For years Stephen Harper and his Cons have been slowly killing our Parliament.They have have debased it, they have rendered it impotent. They have reduced it to a scripted horror show, where every question is answered with an attack on the opposition.But yesterday with their ghastly leader out of the country they practically finished
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: On The Further Debasement Of Parliamentary Debates
In which Parliamentary Secretary Paul Calandra, a loyal Harper soldier, does his utmost to discourage Canadians from watching the misnamed debates. Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Defending The Indefensible – A Tory Tactic
Giving a break to Pierre Poilivre, the most public, glib, oleaginous and wholly unconvincing face of the misnamed ‘Fair’ Elections Act, the Harper cabal tapped good Tory-soldier Paul Calandra to be their point man on Power and Politics to defend the act. There is little doubt in my mind that
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Stephen Harper and the Dirty Secrets of the PMO
Well they're not pretty, but they are fanatics, they'll do anything for their deranged leader.Dark and dirty things that have turned our country into a horror show.But don't bother asking how much Stephen Harper pays his grubby PMO gang, his little monsters. Because that's a state secret. Read more »
Continue readingkirbycairo: Harper, Conspiracies, and Camel’s Backs . . . .
In light of the 50th anniversary of the death of Jack Kennedy, and the media discussion that the event motivated, I want to open this post with a few words about so-called “conspiracy theories.” The simple fact is that while many people belittle any talk of a conspiracy concerning almost
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