Clean Your Own House First Van Loan

Published yesterday in the Ottawa Sun

Overheard in question period: Government House Leader Peter Van Loan calling on the Liberals to “stand up for democracy,” this in reference to goings on in the Senate.

Whatever one thinks about the senate, or the Liberals, ought not this “new government” first focus on cleaning up its own house in the Commons? Van Loan’s dissembling protests aside, the joint seems as messy or worse than ever.

We have a prime minister that won’t allow many of his cabinet ministers to answer questions; a government House leader who is apparently running Canada single-handedly, given how frequently he stands up for questions directed at others; a defense minister that can’t even defend himself; a best-selling book, “How to Disrupt Committees For Dummies” which needs no further comment; and a PM who quite willingly and frequently runs roughshod over democracy whether it’s kicking out progressive conservatives with principles, or appointing to cabinet the unelected and Liberal turncoats who are bereft of them.

The depth of Van Loan and his leader’s sanctimony appears bottomless. Michael Watkins

Also published in The Hill Times June 18, 2007