Parliament Resumes
It will be 82 days since the Prime Minister and his government were sworn into office. He’s made a lot of decisions on legislation affecting Canadians without debate which goes against all he talked about in “openness and transparency”; decisions are being made more by decree than democracy. He will be bringing forward a budget in March. Our leader and our team are ready to go. We’re ready to challenge the government to grow the economy the same way we did as a government by keeping taxes low, balancing the budget and targeting investments.
Liberal Senate Reform
As many of you know our government tried to reform the senate several times. Each bill we introduced was opposed by the Liberals. After the Supreme Court blocked us from reforming the senate we said it should it be abolished if it could not be reformed. Prime Minister Harper actually stopped appointing senators in 2013. That was then.
This is now, and Prime Minister Trudeau has appointed a panel of “eminent” Canadians to help him fill all the vacant senate seats left by Prime Minister Harper. As I understand, it’s the panel who will recommend a “secret list” of potential senate candidates. But apparently the Prime Minister isn’t bound to accept any recommendation or appoint anyone on the panel’s list which makes me wonder if this isn’t just a complete waste of time and money. It appears they just appointed another nonelected body of people to give recommendations to another appointed position.
I believe it is time for the senate to go.
A New Conservative Leader
Our national party has announced we’ll select a new leader for our party in May of 2017, so it should prove to be an exciting year for Conservatives. It is no secret I was very fond of Prime Minister Harper, in whom I had the utmost respect. When I look at Canada’s current economic crisis, I cannot help but think back to 2008 and how he responded so decisively, and so confidently, and so correctly. In doing so, Canada weathered that economic storm and emerged stronger and faster than any other country in the world. I’m not sure Canadians have the same confidence in our current Prime Minister.
So let me ask for your thoughts this week. What qualities are important to you in a leader and are there any names at the top of your list to be the new leader of the Conservative Party? Drop me a line and let me know.
FYI: Canada rose in every international ranking during 2006 – 2015 in which Stephen Harper was P.M. Canada is now #2 in the world in Legacy ranking.
A little bit of fun
So a few, (and I do mean a few) have taken a little exception to my use of this opportunity to write about the various shortcomings of the Prime Minister, his government and their policies. As a member of the opposition, that’s now my job. In a Parliamentary Democracy it is our/my duty to “oppose” the government. I’ll try to be fair and not personal in my criticism.
For example, I noticed an item in in the National Post last week regarding one of the Prime Minister’s “eminent” Canadian senate advisory panel appointments. Seems she is a hypnotherapist by profession specializing in past life regression therapy. Apparently she believes she can take people back to the folks they were in their previous lives or something like that. I’m not sure what that’s all about, but it got me to thinking about potential senate appointments. So who from the past would you bring back? 🙂
And the not so amusing
Just after being elected Prime Minister Trudeau visited the White House and told President Obama Canada we were whipping our CF 18’s out of Iraq. He assured us the President was “good” with it. The Prime Minister then went to Paris for the climate summit with double the number of delegates as the United States at taxpayer’s expense and declared “Canada is Back.” This past week the Prime Minister went to the Global Economic Forum and criticized Canada’s natural resources: the largest export industry in Canada! The world took notice alright. An important meeting was called this past weekend of the world’s defence ministers battling ISIL, except Canada wasn’t invited. It’s discouraging that we have lost our significance at the international level so quickly.
– Lambton-Kent-Middlesex MP Bev Shipley
