It seems Neil Reynolds enjoys using historical trivia to defend Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Our MPs Work Hard - Just Not At Their Real Job; March 1). But he omits the most important year in our parliamentary history: 1848. From then on, in much of British North America, governments required the confidence of parliaments. The role of members expanded from merely trying to reduce government spending to legitimately scrutinizing and deliberating on all government activity. Governments had to answer to the elected members. Mr. Harper's actions have taken us back to debates we thought were settled long ago.
Department of Political Science, Cape Breton University