The Member of Parliament for the riding that includes Whistler, John Weston, is a nice guy. He's also a hard-working MP who is doing his best to bring constituents' concerns to Ottawa, as evidenced by his recent efforts to facilitate action on the collapse of the West Coast sockeye fishery, among other initiatives.
That's why it pains us so to see him flounder in his efforts to explain his leader's decision, for the second time in a year, to prorogue Parliament, as somehow good for Canadians. Fact is, there are no reasons for this move — good or otherwise — beyond the purely political ones.
Sure, Weston — as the MP for the "Olympics Riding" (or at least one of them) — needs to be here along with other government representatives to help Canadians welcome the world. But that could be undertaken by calling a two-week Olympic break, or even by having Prime Minister Stephen Harper and others take a few days away from Ottawa to be present for events, including opening and closing ceremonies. If they really need to take all of January, and almost half of February, just to rest up and prepare for the ultimate schmooze-fest, then our MPs are even less fit than Mr. Weston (the sponsor of the 20:10 Fitness Initiative, which seeks to motivate his colleagues in the House and Senate to be more physically active) realizes.
Don't get us wrong. We expect that Mr. Weston and his colleagues will be plenty busy during the period of prorogation. As he points out in his letter to the editor this week (a response to a letter criticizing the PM's move by Daniel Veniez, who has been named his Liberal opponent in the next election), a lot of the work done by MPs takes place in the riding. This week's event at Park Royal Mall dealing with Games "legacies" is one example.
But parliamentarians don't need the House to be prorogued to carry out that work. There's usually sufficient time when the House is in recess for them to reconnect with constituents on the important issues of the day.
That having been said, we don't think our MP's rather unconvincing defence of the PM's largely political decision to prorogue is entirely him speaking. He is, after all, a first-term MP — a back bencher — who to a large degree is bound by political convention to stick to his talking points and toe the party line. To do anything but defend the decision at this point would be political suicide.
As for the PM, we'll give him one thing: The economy is Canadians' No. 1 priority at the moment, and it's important that we get it right. However, when he cites polls that he says indicate that Canadians "don't care" about the Afghan prisoner detainee issue, he's showing his true colours. Among other things, proroguing shuts down the work of the parliamentary committee that was looking into the matter. If anything, Mr. Harper cares only about maintaining and consolidating power, not doing what's right and ferreting out the truth in a matter that's vitally important to Canada's reputation internationally. Proroguing allows his government to put the Afghan matter in a closet, for now.
Bottom line? We all know Harper is a shrewd politician, and such leaders nearly always do what makes the most sense politically. With the opposition Liberals weak, but polls showing that Harper's Tories don't have enough support to win a majority, Harper is biding his time and spoiling for a fight later this year. Don't be surprised if we get an election nobody wants, not long after the House returns on March 3.
