Government Budget Passes Second Reading

[unimaginative2]

Can you imagine the debate that will take place in the House of Commons and among Canadians when we have to decide whether to stop supplying the United States with Natural Gas because we need it for our own needs or to simply roll over and give it to the Americans and find our own solution?

We will never have that debate. Brian Mulroney already signed away that right.

 

[SD2]

We need more minority governments. They seem to be the only time anything productive actually happens.

I agree...it's the one time EVERYONE's vote really matters. It's amazing to see independent MP's actually getting their demands met (or reasonable compromises on them) just so the government can get it's budget through.

Or a party like the NDP actually able to get some needed funding out of the government.

Everybody has the power to get something.

 

[unimaginative2]

I love some of the behind-the-scenes and low-profile co-operation and work getting done in a minority parliament, but is it really so wonderful that an independent's wishes dictate the agenda? Is it so democratic that one member representing a single riding with perhaps 100,000 people is, in some ways, more powerful than a party elected by twenty or thirty percent of the Canadian electorate?

 

[cdl42]

Yes, it is democratic. No one is forcing them to give in to the independent's demands. For that matter, nothing is forcing the government to follow the public's demands either. But both ways, you just need to deal with the consequences. Paul Martin had a choice: meet the member's demands or have the government fall. He would have sat there, considered his options and weighted them against each other. In the end, he decided that it would be his better interest to meet the demands. Therefore, the system works. Trying to hide behind a "devil made me do it" facade fools no one.