Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Penashue’s ‘strong voice’ rarely heard in the House: study

If anyone in Labrador has any questions about how effective their former minister, Peter Penashue, is in the House of Commons, a new tally from democracy advocacy group, Samara, might help.

The group’s study tallies how many words MPs spoke in the House in 2012. At the top are New Democrat Peter Julian and Liberal Kevin Lamoureaux. For Hill watchers, neither of those comes as much of a surprise.

However, way down near the bottom of the list is Penashue, who left Ottawa under a cloud of allegations that his campaign team overspent its allowable limit during the 2011 election. By Samara’s count, Penashue only managed to say 977 words in all of 2012 in the House of Commons.

He wasn’t the worst. Below him are two other Conservatives: Calgary MP Rob Anders said only 963 words, and Fisheries and Oceans Minister Keith Ashfield came in at the very bottom, having only spoken 922 words in 2012.

After Penashue stepped down from his position as minister for intergovernmental affairs, his former colleagues in the Conservative caucus defended his performance during question period.

“Thank goodness the people of Labrador have a strong voice in Peter Penashue, a voice that we believe will continue to speak loudly on their behalf,” Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre told the House during question period back in March.

Labarador votes Monday with Penshue trailing in the polls.

Original Article
Source: ipolitics.ca
Author: Colin Horgan

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