Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Harper's Monkey Wrench Gang: Another reason why it's time for an election

Jack Layton has put forward a bill to curb greenhouse gases and make governments accountable when they don’t. It’s the kind of tough-as-nails legislation we need at the federal level to get serious about the environment.

Even if they don’t agree with it, MPs should at least be debating it, right?

But they aren’t. Instead, the Conservative Monkey Wrench Gang has turned the House environment committee into a $6 million farce, filibustering Layton’s bill for eight consecutive meetings, often into the wee hours of the night.

Meanwhile, greenhouse gas emissions are going up. People are buying gas-guzzlers because more fuel efficient cars aren’t being built to meet demand. Big polluters aren’t being challenged to do their part. The irreversible damage of doing nothing mounts day by day.

If government MPs are only going to stall, delay and waste time and money fighting bills they don't agree with, isn't it time for an election? With each passing minute the situation worsens in the House and in the lives of everyday Canadians.

Isn't it time Canadians had their say on Harper and his Monkey Wrench Gang?

2 comments:

Greg Fingas said...

While I agree that it's long past time for an election, I'd think that C-377 is one of the few reasons to think that some good may still come out of the current Parliament. As Nathan Cullen has noted, if the Cons keep filibustering all they'll ensure is that the bill goes back to the House of Commons unamended next month. Which means that there's still a real opportunity to get the bill passed based on the joint effort of the opposition parties.

Malcolm+ said...

Riiiight.

The Conserverals will declare it a confidence issue and the Liberatives will cave.