Not everyone can pull off false indignation like the Liberal Party of Canada. One moment they claim to be outraged at the latest diversion tactics by Stephen Harper. They demand changes and threaten to vote against the Conservatives. Then, when it comes time to show up in the House of Commons and actually vote – Liberal MPs mysteriously disappear and are absent during crucial votes.
Such was the case with the Conservatives’ omnibus budget bill, C-9. The Liberals kept enough MPs away to ensure the bill passed and the government did not fall, thereby preventing the launch of another election.
Where is the accountability to the Canadians who sent them to Ottawa? More importantly, where is the accountability of the unelected Senate which is supposed to provide “sober second thought”?
Canadians have been deceived by the Liberals and their grandstanding on the C-9 budget bill not once but twice! First by the duly-elected Liberal MPs who just couldn’t bother showing up to vote, especially those 30 who failed to appear on the third reading, ensuring the survival of the government and the delivery of the budget to the Senate. And then again, by the seven Liberal Senators who, on July 12, failed to show up, easily allowing the adoption of the Harper Conservative budget.
The bill contained some very controversial clauses such as plans to give the federal government the ability to sell off Atomic Energy of Canada without parliamentary approval; questioning the future of our country’s postal service and possibly privatizing some aspects of Canada Post; granting the federal environment minister broad new powers to limit the extent of environmental reviews of thousands of major infrastructure and development projects every year, including exempting them from an environmental review process altogether; and all environmental issues related to new nuclear plants and other major power projects would be left to the federal energy board and nuclear safety regulators.
Quote from Liberal Senator Pierrette Ringuettee: “The Liberal senators are not rubber-stampers of the leadership. We have a mandate to do sober second review of legislation for Canadians, and we will fulfill our responsibility…[The C-9 budget bill is] an affront to parliamentary responsibility, accountability and transparency.” (June 8, 2010, Toronto Star)
What an example of Liberal hypocrisy – stamping their feet in protest over what the Conservatives do, but when it comes time to stand and take action, they just sit on their hands or play dead.
The tragedy is that the Liberals had an opportunity to make changes to the bill in the Senate’s Standing Committee on National Finance, but not enough Liberals showed up to support the amendments to split the bill.
Take Michael Ignatieff as another example – he just didn’t feel it was all that important to show up for work this past parliamentary session either – he only bothered to participate in 7.7%, or 2 out of 26 budget votes.
The Liberals aren’t fulfilling their role as the “official opposition” in Parliament – they’ve become the Conservatives’ silent partner and doing their dirty work to make sure Stephen Harper’s agenda is passed.
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