- The Cons may be able to de-fund and silence Canadian analysis which might show how useless their choice of priorities has been. But they can't stop the UK from concluding that their stimulus program created 154,000 less jobs than it should have while simultaneously missing opportunities to make a positive environmental impact.
- Erin points out another entirely valid theory as to why a potash royalty review is called for. But the need for a review now looks to be the most important conclusion - whether one thinks the 2002 review was reasonable but has been overtaken by events, or whether one thinks it should have provided for higher royalties in the first place.
- Yes, it's sad to see some confirmation of the twenty-eight percent theory based on the number of respondents who place inexplicable trust in the Harper Cons. But there's a bright side: on the same question, twenty-two percent of respondents overcame any bias against seeing the NDP as capable of winning power to declare it the party most capable of "providing honest, open and trustworthy government". And with the NDP well ahead of the Libs on the question, there looks to be plenty more room to convince Canadians that the "government" part is close enough to be worth pursuing.
- And in other good news, Andrew Coyne sees reason for hope that Parliament's start at pushback against the Harper Cons' arbitrary secrecy might just be the beginning:
Knowing they were all but incapable of pulling together the votes to bring the government down—for when one opposition party is up in the polls, the others are sure to be down—they were not only obliged, but in a way freed to pursue other means to bring the government to heel. In a more typical minority, the opposition might have simply defeated the government rather than appeal to the Speaker to defend their rights. Instead, a precedent was set, and then another. Muscles that had long atrophied were given a workout. MPs began to stand a little straighter.
It isn’t only in matters of privilege that Parliament is showing signs of life. Committees, accustomed in the past to deferring to government, are acting with new vigour under opposition control—why, they’ve even begun (gasp!) to issue summons to recalcitrant witnesses to appear before them. Half as many private member’s bills were passed in the first Harper minority as were in three majority governments under Chrétien.
The question is whether any of this new-found feistiness will survive the current Parliament. It has not, after all, been widely observed on the government benches. When, someday soon or later, the opposition is returned to power, will they remember the heady days of 2011, when they fought for their rights as MPs? Or will they go back to sleep?
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