Been a while miss me? ....

Okay so you probably don't since no one reads this but whatever. I am writing today because I think things need to be discussed especially about the state of Canadian Politics currently. We have a government who has been found guilty of being in contempt of parliament meaning the government breached the parliamentary privileges of MPs by refusing to disclose enough details about corporate tax cuts and the costs of Conservative crime bills. So basically they found the government’s failure to produce documents constitute a contempt of Parliament and that “this failure impedes the House in the performance of its functions.” So what exactly does this mean?
In our parliament, to pass a policy or move a bill forward, all the details of that issue have to be openly debated by the MPs and then voted on. Usually (in the case of a majority) more than half the seats are taken up by one party so usually bills and policies pass. However, we have a minority government which means although one side has more then the other, neither side makes up half, so the party in power (or presenting the motion) needs to convince members of the other parties to vote in their favour. Now when it comes to the tax cuts, crime bill and purchasing of fighter jets the Tories were trying to get passed, they hid information (including actual cost information) from the rest of the parliment making it impossible for a debate to occur. Basically, a slap in the face of our democratic political system.
This is a big deal, and I am not sure how many people understand how big of a deal this really is. Allowing this type of disregard for our political system to be rewarded (ie allowing the PCs to stay in power)will open to door to fundamental shift in our system of politics. The democratic system that we all seem to adore (so much in fact that we send Canadian men and women overseas to fight those that oppose democracy) has certain checks and balances in it. It does not allow for a government to run in secret, or pass bills or move it's agenda forward without disclosing that agenda to the public and the rest of parliament. Stephen Harper does not respect his fact, in fact he and his cabinet have little respect for parliament or our system. I mean you have seen the campaign ads that are from the office of Stephen Harper, not the office of the Prime Minister. Let alone the fact, that he was running campaign ads before his government fell, before there was an election to campaign for, which means that the tax payers were paying for that ad, not the Tories.
I am getting long winded here, and I will follow this post up with more in the future and I know Tory supporters are gonna start blasting me, which is fine because I would love to open up the debate. The real point here is to pay attention, look, listen and read. Figure out what issues are important to you and your situation (Economic, familial, social provincial, federal) and find out where the Canadian Political parties stand on these issues. This will allow you to better understand what is going on in the country you live in. Saying "I don't understand politics" is not legitimate excuse, because not understanding politics has nothing to do with knowing what issues effect your life, and the lives of those around you.
Take time away from social networking and look up some of this stuff, actually here check out this website, it gives you a pretty good idea of where to start in this political landscape, a vote compass - http://tinyurl.com/4e84kes

That is a lot of food for thought, so I am done for now.

Peace, I'm Outta here
One Love