Ignatieff Won’t Threaten Election Despite Tories’ ‘Crazy’ Behaviour
Posted January 8, 2010 9:49 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Michael Ignatieff says he won’t stoop to threatening an election despite what he calls the Tories’ “crazy way” of running a democracy.
Speaking outside an empty House of Commons chamber Friday, the Liberal leader berated Prime Minister Stephen Harper for suspending Parliament, a move he said shows contempt for democratic institutions.
But that doesn’t mean Liberals will try to topple Harper’s minority government once Parliament does finally resume on March 3.
“Do Canadians want minority parliaments always functioning with threats? That’s exactly what Stephen Harper does,” Ignatieff told reporters, parrying repeated questions about how he intends to back up his criticism of the prime minister’s conduct.
Ignatieff said he learned his lesson last fall, when Liberal fortunes plummeted after he vowed to defeat the government at the first opportunity.
“I’ve got a very clear message from Canadians: Do your darned job. Lower the volume. Do what you’re elected to do. That’s what I’m going to be doing in January and February.”
In St. Stephen, N.B., where he was attending the opening of a new border crossing, Harper taunted Ignatieff for failing to follow through on his criticisms, even though the prime minister has said no one wants an election.
“It’s interesting to see a week after we set the date for Parliament to return that the Opposition now says they’re going to be really mad about this when they get back from vacation on Jan. 25,” Harper said.
Ignatieff has ordered all Liberal MPs and senators to return to work on Jan. 25, the date Parliament had been scheduled to resume before Harper decided to prorogue. He said they’ll remain on the Hill, conducting public hearings on a variety of issues and holding pre-budget consultations, right through to the Winter Olympic Games, which start mid-February in Vancouver.
“Senators, MPs, we’ll all show up on the 25th and we’re not just showing up for a photo op. We’re showing up to go to work, that’s the point.”
Liberals plan to hold hearings and roundtables on such issues as the continuing high jobless rate, democratic governance, the environment and the treatment of veterans returning from Afghanistan.
The ploy is intended to capitalize on what they perceive as a groundswell of public opposition to Harper’s decision to prorogue Parliament.
“Mr. Harper prorogued Parliament, shut Parliament down, on New Year’s Eve, when he thought no one was looking. He thought Canadians didn’t care and it turns out they do care, they want Parliament to work.”
Ignatieff noted that newspaper editorials have been “uniformly” negative and that about 100,000 people have a joined a Facebook group demanding the return of Parliament. That’s evidence, he suggested, that Canadians aren’t as cynical as Harper believes they are.
Ignatieff said Canadians are realizing that prorogation is just the latest example of arrogance from prime minister who “shuts down every independent regulator or every independent body who stands up to the power of the prime minister.”
“Every time this guy’s in a hole, he tries to shut down institutions that control his power. That’s what’s bothering Canadians,” he said, citing Harper’s moves to silence Canada’s nuclear, military police and RCMP watchdogs.
“We think this is a crazy way to run a democracy.”
Harper has defended his decision to prorogue as a “routine” matter. He repeated Friday that the move is designed to allow the government to recalibrate its economic agenda as the country emerges from last year’s recession.
But Liberals believe the decision was really aimed at shutting down all parliamentary committees, particularly the special committee that had been investigating allegations that prisoners handed over by Canadian soldiers to Afghan authorities have been routinely tortured.
Ignatieff said Liberals will work with other opposition parties to continue exploring the Afghan detainee issue while Parliament is shuttered. And he lambasted Harper for proroguing rather than complying with a Commons resolution demanding that the government turn over documents related to torture accusations levelled by diplomat Richard Colvin.
“Democracy breaks down if a prime minister defies the elected representatives of the people on a matter of that importance,” he said.
Ignatieff said the documents would shed light on such crucial matters as whether Canada has respected international law and human rights, “the conduct of our troops in the field” and the conduct of the government which appears to have ignored warnings about torture.
“This is really serious stuff,” he said, adding that Liberals “will not let up about this.”
