Conservative MP Blaine Calkins caught proroguing reality

It can pay to read the local papers. Look what The Wetaskiwin Times Advertiser claims Conservative MP Blaine Calkins said to the County of Wetaskiwin council:
Calkins said there are a majority of Liberal senators in the upper chamber right now, and that allows those senators chair senate committees. He said although Conservative sponsored Bills may make it out of the House of Commons, they are often killed in the senate due to lack of support.

"What has to happen, the only way to change that is to prorogue parliament and start with a new session of parliament. It will allow the Prime Minister and the house leader to negotiate a new format of the committees, which is good news."

Calkins said it is good news for the Conservative government because, with the possibility of appointing more conservative senators, the government's plan for tougher crime legislation and other proposals may find support in the Canada's upper chamber.

Bald lies. Not one Bill has been defeated in the Senate. Indeed, the Senate has been it's usual self, passing almost everything quickly without much fuss.

If you have to lie to justify a prorogation, that means the prorogation was done to hide from something.

8 comments:

Oxford County Liberals said...

have the actual link to that transcript, Mark?

Patrick Ross said...

Counting on Kally O'Malley to make this argument for you is a very bad idea.

What O'Malley has very clearly chosen to omit from her blog post is the stunt in which the Senate attempted to amend this legislation in a manner that was deemed unacceptable not only by the government, but by the Provinces as well.

(Which was followed by a stunt in which Senator Joan Fraser clumsily attempted a vengeance burn on Manitoba Justice Minister Dave Chomiak and Alberta Justice Minister Alison Redford when they attended a press conference before going to the airport.)

Once again, Mark, if proroguement was done to hide something, what was it done to hide?

(If you say torture, I'm going to have to sit you down and give you a good talking to. ;)

Mark Richard Francis said...

The detainee docs, Patrick. The ongoing questioning. The slide in the polls which started in Nov... Heck, I've covered this in previous posts. I'm not repeating myself.

One *delayed* bill in the Senate does not a prorogue make.

I note you are not dealing with this MP's lies.

Oxford County Liberals said...

Patrick`s been rather busy making the Liberal/Progressive blogs rounds all of a sudden.

Interesting that, when a couple of weeks ago, all they were saying was "no one cares about Prorogue"

Apparently they now do, since they're running willy-nilly trying to clog comment boards with their spin.

Mark Richard Francis said...

I fixed the link, Scott.

Holly Stick said...

Elaine McCoy, Progressive Conservative Senator, discusses the non-Progressive Conservative BS on her blog Nov 27, 2009:

"...Mind you, the government has introduced precious little legislation so far. Only 35 government bills have come over from the House of Commons, and only 4 government bills have been introduced in the Senate. Already, 30 of these bills have received Royal Assent – that’s a completion rate of 75% and the session is only seven and a half months old. On the House side, a total of 59 government bills have been introduced and only 27 completed (less than 50%)..."
http://www.albertasenator.ca/hullabaloos/?article&442

She has a good blog; and her archives are sorted by subject.

About the Senate:
http://www.albertasenator.ca/hullabaloos/?article&425

About partisanship in the Senate:
http://www.albertasenator.ca/hullabaloos/?article&421

Mark Richard Francis said...

Thanks for the reminder. I've met Elaine. I quite like her.

Mark Richard Francis said...

Scott: repeating what I said in anothrp ost:

"...the Harper Government has become quite predictable on this point. Any event, no matter how normal in a government's life it is while Parliament sits, is portrayed as justification for prorogation. It's a communications strategy which draws upon most people's general ignorance of the process of governance. It's a strategy to name anything and everything as the cause for prorogation, except for the truth. Eventually, the Harper Government hopes that they'll be some sort of favourable general buzz."

Not here, Over There!

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