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Working Late on the Hill, and Other Snippets
Innisfil Enterprise
April 18, 2007
By Peter Van Loan, MP, York-Simcoe
Most nights, I'm up on Parliament Hill until
10pm. This past Tuesday, I had a lot of
company.
This week we had the CN Strike back-to-work
legislation. Because of the urgency, we took
the extraordinary step of getting the house
to adopt a special order that we sit
continuously until the Bill was finished all
stages. That meant potentially sitting all
night.
However, because only the NDP chose to fight
the bill, things went quickly, and we were
out of the House of Commons before midnight.
Apparently a desire to sleep at night can
even get politicians to stop talking!
-----
Next election October 2009? The Conservative
Government has consistently said we want
that to be the date. We even have a proposed
law (Bill C-16) which seeks to set that as
the date. While the Liberals are anxious
that the Bill become law now (presumably
motivated by fear of an election now with
Stephane Dion's dismal poll ratings), the
Liberal Senate Senate sat on the Bill for
half a year.
Then, on the Bill's last day in the Senate,
the Liberals amended it to allow a federal
election to be delayed if a small town held
a local referendum on whether to change its
name, or build a swimming pool. That sent
this Bill back to the House of Commons.
We've told the Liberals that we want the law
changed back - so the fixed election date
really is the election date. Thus, the
timing of the next election continues to be
controlled by the Opposition.
-----
Who really supports women in politics?
This week the Liberals stood up in the House
of Commons to claim they champion the cause
of women in politics (suggesting the other
parties do not). This is what you call
nervy.
They ignore the fact that Canada's first
women Prime Minister was a Conservative (Kim
Campbell). Canada's first woman Cabinet
Minister was a conservative (Ellen
Fairclough)
The NDP has had two women leaders.
The Liberals have never had a woman leader.
In fact, in their last leadership
convention, the only woman came dead last,
in eighth place. And there is no sign that
is going to change anytime soon!
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