It’s supposed to be about Democracy.

Recently, Erin Weir, an economist for the Steel Workers Union spoke to the Commons Finance Committee.  His remarks were on the proposed changes to the Investment Canada Act included in the latest omnibus bill of the Stephen Harper Party.

A Harper Party member of the committee, Randy Hoback let loose with a series of rambling questions and witness abuse I think is appalling.  All because Mr. Weir is a New Democratic Party member.

The word used to describe Hoback’s actions was McCarthyism.

Hoback didn’t challenge the facts that Mr. Weir presented, he attacked the man on his politics.  That is a sure sign of a lost argument, if you can’t attack the argument, attack the person.

I think this should be filed under BS.  That of course means Blatant Smear.

Our Constitution includes a section on discrimination.  It is illegal to discriminate based on race, creed, colour, age, and so forth.  Unfortunately the colour of your tie is omitted.  If you are an economist with an NDP card in your pocket, you are not a credible witness according to Hoback. 

That is not Democracy.

The Harper regime has a history of making bureaucrats shut up and people they can’t force to shut up get shouted down, like Mr. Weir did.  It’s gotten to the point where a bureaucrat cannot wipe their nose without a signed note from their manager, countersigned by the Minister in charge.

We elected the Vogons.

The Harper Party has killed the F 35 committee, they took the committee behind closed doors and declared it done.  If it wasn’t for the opposition members on that committee breaking the rules and telling what happened behind those closed doors, we’d likely never know it occurred.

The Harper Party has tabled the most omnibus budget bills and the largest ones at that.  These omnibus budget bills contain many things that are not budget related, but get tossed in there for expediency.  There are at least 15 items in the budget that are deserving of their own bill and debate, but that won’t happen because the Harper Party chose to limit debate on this bill as well.

Stephen Harper used to say that omnibus bills were undemocratic, I guess he flipped, or is that flopped?

Limiting debate certainly doesn’t sound democratic either, does it?

Now, when they formed the Reform Party way back when, it was supposed to be about Democracy.  Constituency groups would select candidates and not have Government Issue ones imposed on them.  They wanted the power to have members who didn’t represent their constituencies properly recalled.

Ask MP David Wilks about Democracy in the Harper Party.  His constituents told him that they did not support the omnibus bill and he said he would vote against it.  Then after a quick trip to the wood shed he came back with "I look forward to supporting the bill and seeing it passed."

The real Reformers, the farmers and the townsfolk who wanted change in how government works are not the bad guys, they wanted Democracy.  They were the grassroots supporters of the Party, but they have been Astroturfed by Harper and the rest of the leadership of his Harper Party.  They just haven’t realized it yet.

I hope they wake up before it is too late.