Saturday January 23rd, 2010
The day dawned sunny and cool, with a feeling of anticipation in the air.
people gather at Dundas Square Toronto
By 12:30 p.m. E.T. people were gathering across the country and also at Dundas Square in Toronto to take part in one of Canada’s biggest political protest demonstrations in decades.
By 1:30 p.m. there were at least 2,000 people watching a series of performers on the big stage. There were Native Canadians, young musicians, members of the Raging Grannies and many others.
The crowd was attentive and orderly and by 2pm, it had swollen to about
Protesters march through downtown Toronto
3,000 and moved out on a march through the downtown heart of the city.
What was impressive about the scene was the age range of the participants.
Young, old, and people in between…Moms and Dads, kids, people of all creeds and colours and of all political stripes. The crowd was very Canadian: well-behaved and orderly. Police reported no incidents whatever.
The prime target of demonstrators was this man.
The Prime Minister must now realize that a great many Canadians are genuinely outraged by his decision to prorogue parliament. There were protest rallies right across the country. Thousands of people voiced their protest and called on Harper and other members of parliament to get back to work.
Organizers quoted Harper in a statement from April of 2005 as saying: 
“When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent is frankly when it’s rapidly losing its moral authority to govern.”
In light of his decision to shut down parliament and all of its committees, it seemed an ironic statement indeed.
Many believe the suspension of Parliament on December 30 signals exactly that. They say it’s an abuse of power and an effort to stifle debate.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney made the rather odd statement that the government works better when parliament is not not in session anyway. That would seem to put him squarely in opposition to parliamentary democracy.
The prevailing opinion amongst the protesters was that the P.M. is now the equivalent of burnt toast.
Just as a footnote to all this, the federal deficit this year is expected to be somewhere around
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And lets not forget the Prime Minister’s statement a year ago that his government would never ever post a deficit.
In other countries with a Westminster-style parliament, Harpo would, indeed, be burnt toast. But this is Canada. Here, we seem to enjoy — almost prefer — charades.
(Ooh, ooh. Two words. It’s the name of a politician, starts with ‘Dickhead’.)
Maybe it’s the lousy climate, Jim. Or the fact that people just don’t give a shit anymore. Because it seems that every one those yabbos on Parliament Hill is beholden to party first; name recognition second; country (and democracy) dead last.
But at least tomorrow is Robbie Burns Day. And that means haggis. (Yum?)
Harper is wrong. His arrogance has been soundly criticized in the National Post, Toronto Sun, Globe and Mail, and Toronto Star. What is he trying to hide?
It’s clear that Mr. McKay has dug a huge sink hole, which has swallowed most of the conservative party. An incident, which may have received a brief slap on the wrist(Canadians vacation in Cuba, a notorious human rights abuser. Can we honestly say we care about human Rights violations? ) Harper could easily have dodged a bullet by fessing up, and committing to fix it. But he didn’t and he has chosen to follow more or less in the footsteps of Ben Johnson rather than CIL who fessed up to the Bu pal tragedy.
The conservatives seem to be a self destructive party. They do a lot of things right, but they just can’t win the confidence of the Canadian public to be granted a majority.
Canada must be governed by a Bill Davis type conservative or a Michael Pearson type Liberal. “Neo cons” or “lefty’s” will never work in this country.
well said unfortunately doc.