mike watkins dot ca : Floor Crossing Prohibition

Floor Crossing Prohibition

Stephen Harper made the Federal Accountability Act a cornerstone of the Conservative campaign in the last election. Unfortunately, when it comes to accountability, Mr. Harper is talking out of both sides of his mouth.

Bringing David Emerson into the Conservative cabinet, indeed, starting negotiations to do same the very day after the last federal election, proved to Canadians that our political system isn’t about accountability but power.

We all have a chance, right now, to help influence the situation. Let members of parliament know that Canadians haven’t forgotten what Emerson did on February 6th, haven’t forgotten the duplicitous dealing that started, with Harper’s knowledge and permission, less than 24 hours after the final ballots had been counted.

Bill C-2, the Federal Accountability Act, is now being discussed in committee, and the time to act if this incomplete legislation is to be improved is right now. Express your opinion by emailing ASAP all committee members. Ask them why floor crossing prohibition was not part of the original bill, and urge them to vote in favour of amendments that would bring a real prohibition into effect.

The committee is comprised of members from all parties and their emails, and those of the party leaders are:

cc2@parl.gc.ca, burkem@parl.gc.ca (Miriam Burke-Bill C-2 Committee clerk), Tilson.D@parl.gc.ca, Poilievre.P@parl.gc.ca, Lukiwski.T@parl.gc.ca, Moore.R@parl.gc.ca, Moore.J@parl.gc.ca, Petit.D@parl.gc.ca, Owen.S@parl.gc.ca, Jennings.M@parl.gc.ca, Tonks.A@parl.gc.ca, martin.p@parl.gc.ca, Sauvageau.B@parl.gc.ca, Guay.M@parl.gc.ca, pm@pm.gc.ca, harper.s@parl.gc.ca, Graham.B@parl.gc.ca, jack@fed.ndp.ca, ducepg@parl.gc.ca

For my part I plan to say that I do not favour the amendment put forward on behalf of the Liberal party by Stephen Owen, which calls for a limited and hamstrung “recall” procedure which puts the onus on voters to reject and recall a MP. I’d like to see the NDP motion supported and ideally taken even further, and shall comment more on each in due course.

Get your pens / keyboards out and write!