Number one for Leader of the Opposition: understanding how law and the Constitution actually work.
A group of prominent law professors is accusing Conservative Leader Stephen Harper of misleading the public by suggesting Parliament can outlaw same-sex marriage without invoking the Constitution's notwithstanding clause. "You must be completely honest with Canadians about the unconstitutionality of your proposal — which will only guarantee that same-sex marriage ends up back before the courts, as opposed to being resolved by Parliament," says the bluntly worded letter, which the 134 academics intend to send to Mr. Harper today.For a movement that was lead by Stockwell Day, the current Reform-Alliance-Conservative leader is making a real run for the Ineffective Leader of Since Eviction from Eden Award. He is already shedding.
Comments
'nee - January 25, 2005 2:00 pm
Thanks, Steven, for killing the Conservative Party of Canada. I didn't always (often, actually) agree with the post-Mulrooney PCs, but I did feel that they were a good bunch of guys trying to uphold Peace, Order and Good Government as they saw it.
Harper and his ilk, however, were a bunch of fucking wackos.
Most Canadians seem to agree with that assessment, too, except Alberta, which isn't actually Canada at all, more like Texas2. But lots of Canadians would happily support a slightly-right-of-centre but compassionate conservative platform - Canadians are mostly if not always militantly centrist, uninterested in extremes - and the PCs were regaining a toe-hold in Parliament.
Then Steven Harper came along and turned the PCs into "Reform Lite" and, that, as we say, was that; the end of any meaningful opposition, which we actually need to have any kind of a Parliamentary Democracy, damnit.