Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Frances Russell comments on how the Cons' war mentality is leading them to shut down any inconvenient opposition using unprecedented procedural tricks:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper won his coveted majority by convincing Canadians his radical days were behind him. So what are Canadians to make of the Conservatives' recent conduct?

They are using their majority on parliamentary committees to block investigations of politically embarrassing issues by going in camera, where MPs are bound by secrecy and can be found in contempt of Parliament if they talk.
...
University of Manitoba political scientist Paul Thomas says going behind closed doors in parliamentary committees is part of the standing orders. Traditionally, however, it is restricted to personnel or national-security issues.

He notes, however, that "even when they were in minority, the Conservatives produced a 100-page instruction manual for their MPs on how to frustrate the committee process." He laments the injection of fierce partisanship into committees. Historically, committees were the one venue where parties could cross party lines and do bi-partisan inquiry.

"The Conservatives seem prepared to frustrate the standing committees from doing any serious work probing into government performance," Thomas continued in an interview. Value for money investigations "have become a joke. It's depressing, really."

If the issue before the committee is sufficiently serious, opposition MPs might consider risking the consequences, taking off their gags and alerting the public, Thomas says. What would the consequences be? Likely sanction by the Speaker and suspension from Parliament.

Asked if this smacks of authoritarianism, Thomas replied "Yes, there's a real aura about it."

- Tim Harper muses about some reasons for reduced voter turnout:

While it is too much to expect that more inspiring politicians and more inspiring campaigns would spark a stampede to the polls, votes that do not promise change are votes that do not create excitement.

The year of the incumbent also means the year of voter suppression — not in the sinister, underhanded way the term implies — but a year of governing parties happy to keep turnout low because, historically, low turnout means advantage to the incumbent.

It also explains why any radical overhaul of the voting system is met with such indifference by incumbent governments, which have just benefited from an existing system that lets the sleeping voter lie.

These factors ride shotgun with a lack of anger in this country in 2011.

Whether this contentment is misplaced or not is certainly a matter for debate, but a lack of anger plays to the collective shrug we are seeing during successive campaigns this year.

- Greg Weston digs into how Harper insider Bruce Carson used (and misused) federal green energy funding after being hired to head the Canada School of Energy and Environment.

- Finally, the Sask Party spent years citing SaskTel's subsidiary Navigata as their poster case as to why Crowns shouldn't do any business outside the province. Now, SOS Crowns makes it clear exactly how responsible they were in disposing of the province's investment:

Following the adoption of the Sask First policy, the Brad Wall government began the process to divest of a number of Crown Corporation subsidiaries including Navigata in 2009...(T)he organization including their physical assets was sold for only $1.25 million. At that time, the purchase price was minuscule compared to the estimated value for all of the physical assets and infrastructure.

Even though Ken Cheveldayoff, former Minister of Crown Corporations, insisted at the time that subsidiaries would not be sold off at fire sale prices, the truth is now being revealed.

Recently, SOS Crowns learned that the new owner of Navigata has chosen to redirect the core focus of the company, resulting in the sale of their microwave communication towers for $18 million.