In a caucus of drones, Prime Minister Stephen Harper must have searched hard for one with the traits and training of a pit bull. He found that he had just the one in the person of Member of Parliament Pierre Poilievre. Harper made him a Minister of State less than a year ago to push through the Conservative’s massive and undemocratic elections act. And Poilievre has certainly kept up his end. He has stayed at the helm as the ship carrying the legislation goes down.
Nobody paid much attention to Poilievre before. There was not much to report. His francophone name was a bit misleading as he was born and educated in Calgary. He came east and chose to run in 2004 in the electoral district of Nepean-Carleton in the Ottawa area of Ontario. Nepean-Carleton is a relatively safe Conservative seat.
And one of the early holders of that seat provincially was now federal Foreign Minister John Baird. Poilievre is a close friend of Ottawa’s Bobbsey Twins Baird and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney. Poilievre and the Prime Minister also shared a mentor in the person of Professor Tom Flanagan at the University of Calgary. Poilievre’s ultra-Conservative credentials are impeccable. And as Canadians can see, he is truly loyal to his leader Stephen Harper.
Poilievre has stayed the course with the huge elections act as it has been shredded by experts in election law. He has been steadfast and stuffily supportive of the bill, as is, from day one. While some Tory insiders are now saying that he might relent on some minor aspects of the bill, he has given no public indication of anything other than staying the course with the existing bill.
While the Conservatives have set time limits on the bill’s various stages to try to force it to be passed before the summer, there is no time for the large numbers of amendments the act really needs. Patchwork repairs are not the answer as there are still too many concerns about the act itself.
If the Conservatives use their majority in the House and Senate to pass the act as it is, they will be opening themselves up to a corrupted election next year that nobody will trust or respect. It would help the Conservatives destroy Canada’s vaunted democracy.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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