Friday, May 18, 2007

Procedural Pettiness: Harper’s latest tantrum lashes out at Layton

On the very same day as it was revealed that the Conservative Party has a circulated a secret 200-page secret play-book guiding their MPs to turn their House committee into a dysfunctional zoo, the Harperites are once again putting pettiness first.

The NDP made it clear weeks ago that they would be using their next opposition day to call on the government to act on C-30, the re-written environment bill that Harper has been sitting on since it came out of the all-party committee that the NDP pushed for last October.

But where this debate was supposed to happen earlier this week for a full 8 hours, the Conservatives moved it to today – Friday – the shortest day that the House of Commons sits and limited it to a paltry two hours.

Why? In retaliation for the NDP having the temerity to ask for a standing vote on the changes Harper proposed to equalization, the Conservatives are punishing the NDP.

Canadian Press reported on Harper's latest tantrum:

Layton said the motion was bumped to punish the NDP for insisting on a recorded vote Tuesday on the budget implementation bill. The vote embarrassed some Altantic and Saskatchewan Tory MPs who were compelled to support the budget despite vicious opposition in their home provinces.

"Canadians should be furious at this," said Layton of Wednesday’s machinations. "It may seem like inside parliamentary procedure but what it is is arrogance. It is a rejection of the dignity and respect which is owed to parliamentarians, it’s childish and it’s completely unacceptable as far as we’re concerned."

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