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February 06, 2007
Loco motion
When Stéphane Dion introduced his motion in the House of Commons admonishing the government to "reconfirm Canada's commitment to honour the principles and targets of the Kyoto Protocol in their entirety," Stephen Harper pledged to simply ignore it. When Gilles Duceppe introduced a motion to recognize Quebec as a nation, Stephen Harper signed over the deed to the farm — with the full backing of a significant, bipartisan, ostensibly federalist rabble. There are Canadians who wonder still why the former principle couldn't have been applied in the latter case.
Posted by Chris Selley at February 6, 2007 06:33 PM
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Comments
Didn't Harper propose the recognition of the québécois as a nation? That's not a trifling difference, Chris.
Posted by: Dr.Dawg ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.tartcider.com/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
at February 16, 2007 06:07 PM
Harper's motion was an emergency response to the Bloc's original motion, which I'm suggesting the government should have just let pass if it was truly the will of Parliament that it do so. If Jack Layton wants to vote for Yogi Bear's motion banning hard-to-open picnic baskets, then so be it.
Everyone just accepted that allowing Duceppe's original motion to pass would have been a disaster for Canada, but Harper conceded the larger point and Confederation is still intact. And Duceppe voted for the government's motion in the end. It says here Harper & Co. got snookered.
Posted by: Chris Selley at February 16, 2007 11:10 PM