Cons Play Games to Prevent Senate Action?
A senate private members bill must be sponsored by an MP to get it through the commons. From what I understand, the regular procedure is for a sympathetic MP to sponsor the bill normally in order to bring it forward. It appears that Harper’s Conservatives may have found a way to subvert this procedure in service of their singular agenda.
One rule is that if the sponsor doesn’t show up twice for debate on the bill, then it will automatically die. This Toronto Star article (6 July 2009) explains how Tory MPs have been quickly sponsoring bills even when they aren’t in favour of the bills. An explanation for this counterintuitive behaviour is that the MP can then simply not show up for the debates, and thus by normal procedures the bill dies.
In other words, subverting procedural rules allows the Conservatives to stop the flow of potential progress and halt the work of the senate. Hardly seems within the spirit of good governance. I’m also not sure how this could possibly represent the collaborative working methodology a minority government ought to be pursuing to best represent the populace that elected it.
