Prime Minister Stephen Harper during Question Period on Wednesday, June 16Adrian Wyld
Conservative MP Michael Chong wants to reform the daily Question Period in the House of Commons to require that real questions from the opposition get real answers from the government.
Wednesday's session provided ample proof as to why those changes are needed.
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff started the round by asking about the agenda of the G8 meeting that starts next week.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said Mr. Ignatieff, wanted to talk about women's rights but not protecting those rights overseas; he wanted to talk about economy but there is no progress on banking reform; and he did not want to talk about the environment but was forced to put it on the . "How can the Prime Minister explain that Canada has lost control of its own summit?" asked Mr. Ignatieff.
Mr. Harper rose in his place and buttoned his jacket. "This sounds to me more like a leader who is losing control of his own party," he replied.
Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe asked about the government's to allow Dimitri Soudas, the Prime Minister's director of communications, to appear before the Commons ethics committee. The Conservative government has said its staff members will not testify at committees and, for the past month, has been sending ministers as stand-ins when staffers are summoned.
The government's position "clearly contravenes parliamentary powers," said Mr. Duceppe. "Dimitri Soudas is refusing to testify in committee and he could thus be found in contempt of Parliament. Does the Prime Minister realize that by supporting his director of communications, he is also showing contempt for the Parliament and for democracy, which makes him unworthy of acting as Prime Minister?"
Mr. Harper responded by saying his ministers are responsible to Parliament. Then he went off into a tangent about the system. The government introduced a bill to reform the pardons system on May 11 but did not move it forward for debate until Monday of this week. Now, with the House rising this week for the summer break, there is a possibility that the pardons legislation might not be passed into law before the fall. "The pardons system needs to be stronger," said Mr. Harper. "The Canadian population thinks this is much more important than vacation and I hope the Bloc Québécois will work to help reform the system."
When Carole Freeman of the Bloc also asked about Mr. Soudas's non-appearance at the committee, Pierre Poilievre, Mr. Harper's parliamentary secretary, employed the same diversionary technique.
The opposition does not want to hear from ministers, said Mr. Poilievre, because "they don't want Canadians to know that, through the Universal Child Care Benefit, 56,000 children have been lifted out of poverty, that 5 million Canadians have registered tax-free savings accounts with up to $16-billion in new investment from that, and coalition parties do not want Canadians to know about the 300,000 jobs."
Not much in that about Mr. Soudas.
Then there was NDP Leader Jack Layton, who has spent two days explaining that his House leader, Vancouver MP Libby Davies, has apologized for her to the effect that the Israeli occupation of Palestine had gone on for far too long.
Mr. Layton pointed out to the House that Mr. Ignatieff wants Canada to stay in Afghanistan after July, 2011, in a capacity - something the NDP opposes - and asked whether the Conservative government also felt that way.
Mr. Harper replied: "I am very surprised that the Leader of the New Democratic Party is trying to criticize another leader after his actions, his deputy, his parliamentary leader, has denied the right of Israel to exist with extremist declarations and he has not reprimanded her. So he is in no position to criticize the Liberal Leader or any other leader."
Mr. Layton asked two more questions about Afghanistan. Mr. Harper handed him back two more accusations about his handling of the situation of Ms. Davies.
There was some talk about extending this session past this week to deal with the pardons bill. It's clearly time they all went home for a couple months.