Sunday, July 05, 2009

On missed opportunities

According to the CP, Conservative MPs are rushing to take responsibility for sponsoring bills originating in the Senate in order to control their passage (or lack thereof) through the House of Commons. And the result is that even on bills like Mac Harb's proposed seal-hunt ban which the Cons spent months bashing and which didn't even find a seconder in the Senate, it's the Cons alone who have attached the names of actual elected officials as formal supporters.

Now, it would seem to me that there's an obvious response available to the Libs which would both expose the tactic and create substantial public leverage against the Cons. For each controversial bill already put forward, the simple answer would be to focus attention on the Cons' sponsor as supporting any the bill and let that MP explain to his or her constituents how the connection is only the result of the Cons gaming the system. And for an added bonus, the next step would be to put forward some bills designed to make the Cons squirm to see if they're reckless enough to keep rushing to sponsor the Libs' Senate legislation as a procedural tactic.

Instead, the Libs' response has been...to release a Dion-style complaint that it's all unfair. Which both fails completely to attach any cost to what Con MPs have done already, and gives the (correct) impression that the Cons are running circles around the Libs when it comes to turning the rules of procedure to their advantage. And that outcome only figures to reinforce the Libs' weakness when it comes to dealing with Harper's political tactics.

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