If one of your one say this then maybe it is true?

I think that that shine of the Haper government has coming off the armour. But if we can get out crap together and give a true opposition , The Liberal party can form government. What do you think? read this tell me?


Don Martin, National Post · Wednesday, Jun. 16, 2010

Rarely heard Conservative MP stood in the Commons yesterday to admonish MPs on their low productivity this spring.

"Not one new government bill has passed Parliament to become law," scolded Cheryl Gallant. "It is time for the opposition to stop interfering, get serious and start working."

Better late than never, a solution is unfolding on Parliament Hill. MPs are ending 63 days of all-out war over fake lakes and parliamentary supremacy with an outbreak of peace on two fronts while readying a rush of legislation forward for final votes today.

Clearly all Ottawa needs to supercharge MPs into action is to keep them on constant countdown just 72 hours from a long vacation break.

That seems to have goaded the Liberals and Bloc Quebecois into holding their noses yesterday to support a last-minute government deal on Afghan detainee documents.

Just over an hour later, all the parties did a group hug with Auditor-General Sheila Fraser and bowed to the "public interest" (which means the screech of angry voters) in allowing her to peek at a "sampling" of MP spending that they had tried for weeks to keep under a blanket of secrecy.

Neither deal should be confused with a new sense of parliamentary co-operation. This is simply what happens when the MP mind focuses on fleeing for a break that outlasts the average Canadian high school student's summer holiday by almost a month.

The detainee document deal finds a reasonable middle ground between the government's desire for all-out secrecy and the oppositions' demand for all-out disclosure. Only the NDP wouldn't go along.

Declaring Cabinet documents off-limits to MP eyes seems to go against the Speaker's ruling on the MPs' right to see all detainee documents uncensored, but they will be viewed by independent arbiters chosen by all parties, so it signals give and take on both sides. The nagging question will be timing. With documents scattered around the Kandahar Airfield or reportedly lining the bottom of shipping containers at sea, the collection, sorting, editing, legal examination and re-censoring could outlast our combat mission in Kandahar.

The partial disclosure of MP expenses was also achieved under last-minute pressure to do something before MPs head for home to face voters.

The great misperception was always that Sheila Fraser wanted a look at every purchase of coffee and a muffin, when all she actually sought was a performance audit of spending programs and budget envelopes. She did not get her way with Senators, who are still ignoring her request for a probe of their budgets. Shame on them.

But MPs can rejoice, knowing they've struck a deal at minimal risk of having any of their own personal spending irregularities exposed. Ms. Fraser will only peruse a sample of their expense claims and won't name names if she finds hard-to-swallow spending. That's like telling employees that the company bean counters will scan only a "representative sample" of self-approved expense accounts.

Even better news for MPs was learning it will be late 2011 -- just as Ms. Fraser's 10-year appointment expires and safely after the next election--before she reports on the expenses.

In both cases, the last-minute summer scramble has produced reasonable solutions to sharp political divisions. RelievedMPs have put their trash out on the curb. Now they're clear to head off the Hill.

dmartin@nationalpost.com
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