Apparent COnservative caucus revolt leads to withdrawal of robocall regulations.
by Samantha Bayard
OTTAWA, April 17, 2013 (Straight Goods News) — The Harper government faced another uneasy week. Today Opposition party MPs blasted Harper for withdrawing a proposed electoral reform bill promised last March — and that had been scheduled for debate — to address the robocall scandal. Apparently, Democratic Reform Minister Tim Uppal had responded to backbench grumbling over "muzzling" by revealing the contents of the bill to his caucus, and them pulling the bill from the House agenda.
Revealing the bill to Conservative MPs before tabling it in the House may have violated parliamentary privilege, according to the Opposition.
NDP House leader Nathan Cullen cites "steady erosion of discipline," says this government "obviously out of steam." 
"This is an absolute scandalous approach to governing," said NDP House Leader Nathan Cullen. "After months and months of delays, the government finally brings a bill in — but then shows it to its own caucus first, which is a breach of the rules which govern this place."
"Obviously, the Conservative caucus was given, if not at first copies of the bill then certainly the details of the bill, they found problems with the legislation and now the minister has pulled it back off the table. So he must have spoken in detail in order for them to have such a problem with the legislation.
"There’s no way it was a vague 50,000-foot view of the work," explained Cullen. "This government is plagued by scandal. This isn’t a question of right versus left. This is right versus wrong. It’s a democratic sham. It’s somewhat ironic, that a bill about improving our electoral system was presented in such an undemocratic way. "
Cullen sees a consistent pattern of behavior for the Harper government. "Time and time again, the arrogance and entitlement, the abuse of power that we're talking about here today just seems to be the only way they know."
The government has pooled all the Opposition Days at the beginning of the session, which, Cullen said, is systematic of a government running out the clock until the end of session. At that point, he expects another "Trojan horse" budget implementation bill with just enough time to pass it. "The only reason a government ramps them all up at the beginning is so they can get out of school early. We think that’s reprehensible and it shows again this government has just lost its way and lost ideas."
About Samantha Bayard
Samantha Bayard is a young journalist living and working out of Ottawa. She has been a contributor to the Straight Goods News family of websites since 2009. She is an avid cyclist and lover of animals.
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