Prime Minister Stephen Harper is running this country. Democracy is barely existent. A nation ruled by a Prime Minister seemingly obsessed with power cannot be good for Canadians. The House of Commons and its committees are irrelevant and dysfunctional. The Senate is the only aspect of Canada’s parliamentary system of government that Stephen Harper has not yet been able to control, but he has tried.
Recent media reports have indicated the PM’s Chief of Staff, Ian Brodie, is cut from the same cloth as Stephen Harper. Not my kind of cloth. Brodie is Harper’s strong man who has reportedly reduced cabinet ministers to tears. Think of it! Your elected MP is being brought to tears, or ordered by the PM’s office on how they should represent you and the consequences if they don’t follow orders. I believe it is wrong for the PM’s staff to have more power than your Member of Parliament. This is not leadership; it is an abuse of power.
Peter Milliken, the Speaker of the House of Commons is on record stating that, “Partisan political antics are pushing Ottawa's parliamentary committees – where the country's laws are first debated and considered, to the brink of anarchy.”
I have worked long and hard for conservatives for over forty years, including the Harper conservatives. It is Stephen Harper and his chosen few, like Ian Brodie, who are giving me cause for regrets. Yes, Stephen Harper rules, not your elected Member of Parliament.
