On useful constraints

While I'm skeptical of a few of the "basics" that he thinks the Libs should take up (which not coincidentally are probably exactly the ones most likely to surface in a Lib platform), Gordon Gibson certainly has some useful ideas to add on the Harper-proofing front:

Electoral reform. Promise to bring in an element of proportionality so that the public view is honestly represented in Parliament. Propose the changes before the next election with a promise to implement them if the voters approve.
...
Constrain prime ministerial power. We need strong leaders, but we don't need dictators. There are ways to do this:

* Get rid of the “confidence” rule on most issues, the main tool of prime ministerial power. (Details some other time, but it is fundamental.)
* Give parliamentary committees guaranteed continuity of membership and professional policy staff. Amazingly, this does not now exist. Committees, which should be quests for the truth and good policy, have become ignorant partisan jousting grounds.
* Above all, promise a truly muscular Freedom of Information Act. When I worked in the PMO, my job was to read all cabinet and other secret documents. I knew then and I am certain now that 90 per cent of everything in these very useful analyses could be and should be published on the front page of this newspaper every morning. Secrecy is for the convenience of the governing party, not the people, but we have paid for these analyses and we deserve to know them. Information is at the centre of a functioning democracy.
* One last thing: Provide for the direct-democracy tools of the initiative and recall for when politicians really screw up. Don't make it easy, but give these nuclear options to the voters in extremis.