Canada is rapidly becoming a glaring example of a democracy in decline. With a minority government, Canada’s democratic process should be healthier than it has been in years. The Conservatives, as the minority government, should be hard at work building consensus between parties and trying to balance public opinion to avoid loosing a non-confidence vote. Instead, Stephen Harper has done his best to limit and control the media, he has made a mockery of our parliamentary system through two self-serving prorogations, he is now trying to limit the power and effectiveness of parliamentary committees, and he has restricted the lawful freedom of citizens to information... sadly the list goes on. Anyone of these issues taken by themselves are disturbing enough, but when put together, they illustrate a party that has a complete disregard for the democracy they are charged with upholding and protecting.
The Conservatives have repeatedly misused and corrupted the system in order to maintain their grip on power, as was evidenced in their prorogation of Parliament to avoid loosing a non-confidence vote in December of 2008, and then using the same tactic a year later to stymie debate on the abuse and torture of Afghan prisoners, an issue that was causing them considerable political grief. Prorogation of Parliament is a completely legitimate and normal part of the Parliamentary Cycle, but when used by a party to avoid continued scrutiny by the public and the Opposition, it undermines democracy itself, as public and political scrutiny are the foundation upon which the entire democratic system depends for its very support and survival.
For a leading party to shut down public and political debate with the sole intent of maintaining its own grip on power, is a sure sign that the party is not as dedicated to the democratic process as it is to using the process to gain and maintain their own power. The fact that they did it twice in a year is only slightly more disturbing than the fact that Canadians did nothing about it. A few people got angry, a few demonstrated and once the Conservatives re-opened Parliament, it was back to business as usual. The Conservatives were never held accountable for betraying their sacred trust, to serve and protect our democratic principals. This type of behaviour is unacceptable and Canadians should be outraged at the outright perversion of our political system for personal and political gain.
At every turn, the Conservatives have tried to avoid accountability to the people through any means at their disposal, even though this very accountability in any democratic system is the key to its survival as an institution. In their latest moves to try and block the Opposition from viewing documents relative to an ongoing debate, preventing staff from testifying in Committees, and trying to prevent the proper and lawful release of documents under the Freedom of Information Act demonstrate the utter contempt this party has for public debate and makes one wonder what they are trying to hide.
At end of day however, it is the common thread that has run through the leadership history of the Harper Conservatives, since they first began trying to restrict the press’ ability to question their members freely. They are trying to limit the flow of accurate information in order to diminish any effective public and political opposition thereby strengthening their own grip on power. Like most tyrants in the making, they hide behind the rhetoric of war and the impending danger to us all should we show any weakness at all. They speak of state secrets that if revealed, will so weaken our military and intelligence networks that the walls of our great nation will begin to fall down around us as our enemies storm the gates. This is the same tired rhetoric used by every tyrant who has traded in fear to tighten their grip on the reigns of absolute power, but it is nothing more than a smoke screen meant to blind us to the truth.
As Canadians, we need to start demanding a higher standard of conduct from our politicians, especially when they begin to act like our current leader and his party. By allowing them to continue exploiting and perverting our democratic system, we are telling our politicians that we do not truly care about our democracy. Worst of all, by allowing these transgressions now, we are setting dangerous precedents for the future. A relativity of conscience will begin to occur, whereby each democracy limiting measure will seem less an affront and will be much easier to commit for successive parties seeking to consolidate their hold on power. We need to tell the Harper Conservatives and the currently lackluster Opposition Parties that enough is enough. We love our Democracy, our Freedoms, and we demand a higher standard of governance.
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