In an interview with Aaron Wherry's for article in Macleans she spoke about the state of our Parliamentary Democracy, below is a small extract..
“I love parliamentary democracy. I am
fascinated by procedure. I’m beside myself with the way things are
slipping.” What follows then is a 524-word dissertation—stretching
from the slightest breach of decorum to the profound questions of
power at the heart of our system—on the state of parliamentary
democracy in Ottawa.
“I know it sounds small, but you’re not supposed to have
members of Parliament standing and waiting their turn because they
know when they’re going to be called and they have their speech
ready and they’ve got the little podium and they’ve got a written
speech in front of them and they’re standing while someone else is
speaking. No one is supposed to stand except the person that’s been
recognized by the Speaker and until you’re recognized by the
Speaker you’re not supposed to stand. I know these may seem like
small points, but it’s indicative of a failure to recognize that
the respect for traditions in the House of Commons may start with
things like one person stands at a time and only when recognized by
the Speaker. And as soon as the Speaker stands, the person who’s in
full oratory flight is supposed to sit down. Those are things that
when you ignore that you also can get away with having a prime
minister who ignores all parliamentary tradition and prorogues—well,
not all, because Sir John A. Macdonald did it once and then paid for
it by losing power—but you’re not supposed to prorogue the House
of Commons to avoid a political difficulty. So a failure to respect
our traditions of Stephen Harper proroguing twice then launched into
Dalton McGuinty proroguing. This is very unhealthy for democracy.
Because we are a Westminster parliamentary democracy and tradition
and if we don’t pay attention and respect Parliament, then we are
allowing the Prime Minister’s Office, which doesn’t exist as an
entity in our constitution, it’s not like the executive branch and
the White House in the U.S. constitution—the notion of a Prime
Minister’s Office as an entity in the machinery of government is
simply an invention, but it’s like a cancerous growth. And as the
Prime Minister’s Office grows, and this is a trend we started with
Pierre Trudeau in a much more innocuous way, it’s not reached its
apex, but if we don’t do anything to stop it, what else will the
next prime minister do? And as the PMO grows into being the
all-powerful decision-maker, leaving cabinet ministers, basically
their job appears to be the primary public relations spokesperson for
an area of policy they had nothing to do with developing, it’s
dangerous to health of democracy. So respect for Parliament, to me,
is synonymous with respect for democracy. And I respect Parliament
and that’s where the work is happening. I respect … there’s
very few ministers who actually, actually I can only think of one,
who sit though parliamentary debate on their own bills. And that’s,
and should I say for credit where credit’s due, Jason Kenney. When
his bills are being debated and when I rise to criticize his
legislation, he actually knows what I’m talking about and will make
a reasoned defence of his own legislation. But for the most part,
it’s like a ritualized form of theatre. And that’s dangerous.
It’s not just a relic, sort of an anachronism, that we still have
parliamentary democracy. That’s the system. And the problem is PMO,
not Parliament.”Read more of this article
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