As Harper has shown, 'the rules' can be ignored.
That hardly makes them rules, now does it?
The Harper Conservatives have treated the rules like conventions.
Conventions can and usually do change over time. Conventions can and always change at the whim of despots.
Funny thing about despots: few people recognize them until it's too late.
In 2004, HarperCo won over the Martinites on a platform of accountability: greater access to information, greater transparency, etc., etc., etc.
How well has that gone?
It's long past time that a party of the opposition ran on a platform of full democratic reform, including but not limited to:
- redoing the rules so they cannot be treated as mere conventions, and
- parliamentary and electoral reform
The interests or survival of political parties must no longer take precedence over the rights of voters to proper representation in the House of Commons and in its proceedings.
As for the Liberal Party, Ignatieff's former suggestion to "trust" him to do what is right should he become prime minister, doesn't cut it. As has been so often the case, he misses the point - one must assume deliberately, given his intelligence and way with words. The issue goes beyond any one man or his ego, any one prime minister or any one political party.
ETA: Ignatieff and the Liberal express bus recently passed through Duncan, enroute to Victoria from Nanaimo. Wish he'd stopped here, rather than ignoring us; would have welcomed meeting and speaking with him. Few people on the mainland appear to realize that the Cowichan Valley serves as bedroom community for many who work in Victoria or that it has seen huge growth and development over the past several years.
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