Turner Situation; Government Bully Politics At Its Best.
This has been a new phenomenon brought about by the current government to bully the opposition, particularly the Liberals.
During majority governments, it is common courtesy to allow opposition members to have first pick of offices to avoid any conflict. A block of offices is offered, and the party distributes them based on seniority and level of responsibility.
There is no such thing as a Liberal or Conservative office. The governing party is entitled to the multi suite offices that are reserved for ministers, and the government can really only claim ownership of those. If one were to visit Parliament Hill for the first time, one might be shocked to see that very few members have their fellow party members as neighbors. For the most part, very few offices have members of the same party adjacent to one and other. The Bloc Quebecois enjoy having offices near each other, but also many of them enjoy the West Block, which is popular with Members who smoke, thus spreading them out. There are 308 members of parliament, thus 308 offices. With the government removing a member from his office, they create an unoccupied space (wasting taxpayers money), and HOC will have to procure a new office (Once again wasting taxpayers money) or make Mr. Turner share with another Liberal, hindering that member and the party's resources and space.
The government will argue that in 2000, P.C. Member Jim Jones was not allowed to access his parliamentary office because he announced he was joining the then new Canadian Alliance. An election shorty followed, and Mr. Jones was defeated, so that story really has no ending. Also, the conflict was between two opposition parties, and if anyone knows how HOC ruled in that case,I would appreciate the information.
The bottom line is the Conservative Party's bully tactics. When they took power, they removed several Liberals from their offices, some of which had been in them since 1988. When Dalton McGuinty took power in Ontario in 2003, he allowed all P.C. backbench members to keep their existing offices. There use of intimidation in their lust for power has been clearly exposed in this case with Mr. Turner.
posted by player_hater @ 10:53 AM
1 Comments
1 Comments:
You're absolutely right. This affront to the dignity of the Hon Mr Turner is nothing short of scandalous. In fact, I think the Liberal Party of Canada ought to demand an apology immediately. I know there are already four such demands today on the Liblogs site, and these are in queue with demands for apologies to Mr Bains, to Mr Goodale, to M Dion ...
Let me get the ball rolling. O, Liberal Party of Canada, I apologize for the ignorant self-regard of Canadians who refused to return you to office; I don't know who we thought we were, with such uppity behaviour. Please forgive us. Will that do? Do you think you could now turn your attention to the affairs of the Canadian people--and to your proper task of holding the government to account? Honestly, I've never before seen an Opposition so convinced its job was to focus the national conversation on supposed affronts to its dignity...
Mr Harper claimed in the last campaign that he didn't go seeking apologies (say, for being, on a minute-by-minute basis, accused of a "mean-spirited, far-right, neoconservative/Republican ideological agenda") because he could take a punch. Perhaps this a skill the present Liberal caucus should attempt to cultivate. It might help convince Canadians that you DON'T in fact believe l'etat, c'est les Liberaux. Just sayin'....
All the best.
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