Prime Minister Stephen Harper makes an infrastructure funding announcement in Vancouver on March 1, 2010.LYLE STAFFORD
Justin Trudeau and Elizabeth May both get in shots at the democratic principles of Prime Minister Stephen Harper in editorials published Tuesday as part of The Mark's series on ways to save Canada.
Mr. Trudeau, the Liberal Member of Parliament for the Montreal riding of Papineau, says he is "genuinely disappointed" that Mr. Harper did not hold true to the ideals that brought him to power.
"And I'm not even talking about their abject failure to be fiscally responsible or their enthusiasm for patronage and pork. I'm referring to the basic premise of the old Reform Party, the call for a government that is open, accountable, and respectful of democratic values and the rights of its citizens," Mr. Trudeau writes.
"Instead, over the past four years, Stephen Harper has carefully nurtured and encouraged a level of cynicism about politics and politicians heretofore unseen in Canada. Instead of championing the conservative principle of less government, he made people believe less in government."
Ms. May, the Green Party Leader, says the democratic deficit threatens Canada's ability to resolve the fiscal and ecological deficit.
"We must end the top-down, centralization of power in the Prime Minister's Office," she writes.
"After the second prorogation, Queens University Professor Emeritus Ned Franks observed that we should call Mr. Harper 'King Stephen the First of Canada.' He has violated the most fundamental of principles in parliamentary democracy: that the Prime Minister serves at the pleasure of the House, not the other way around."
Other suggestions on how to save our democracy include backing watchdogs (from Senator Larry Campbell), putting a stop to heckling (Adam Chapnick) and making committees matter (Liberal MP Carolyn Bennet). The entire series of 14 proposals is compiled here.
(Photo: Lyle Stafford/Reuters)