Tyranny of the Minority

One of the things that strikes me about the cutbacks that Harper's gang announced today was how it illustrates the increasing irrelevance of parliament. I think that most of these changes could not have been voted through the House. Had they been announced as part of any budget, they would have been revised to pass the same budget. Instead this is just something that cabinet announces as a fact to us, the plebians in the electorate.

This was the kind of thing that would have been criticised by people like Harper in the days of Chretien. While Chretien's Liberals never won a majority of the popularity vote, they could at least command a majority in the commons. Now we have a government that is not even close to a majority that is seriously altering spending priorities and nothing is to be done about it.

For someone that promised democratic accountability, Steve sure acts like an elected dictator once he has a whiff of power. This is a minority folks, a party that got what? 1/3 of the popular vote the last time out?
Tags: Stephen Harper, parliament, cutbacks.