A Mockery Perhaps?
On Thursday in Alberta's Legislature, amidst the excitement that was going on in the hallways of the illustrious Dome, this little tid bit almost slipped under the radar. Almost, but not quite. Here is something that the Speaker, Ken Kowalski, said which you can also find in Hansard on page 618 right here. But here is what Mr. Speaker said:
The Speaker: Well, hon. members, I want to raise a point this afternoon with respect to tablings. There’s a difficult situation that has developed and is starting to develop, and I’ve used by an example sessional paper 1972006 which was tabled in the House by the hon. Member for Edmonton-Rutherford. Invariably members stand up and say: “I’m tabling here a letter with respect to the provincial government plan for the future of daycare,” or something to the like, and a document is tabled which references the national child care program. In looking at some of these tablings, as the chair does from time to time, there’s absolutely nothing in the letter that has to do with the province of Alberta. But more importantly than that there is no signature on the letter, there is no identification who the letter might be from, and the letter that’s tabled is absolutely unreadable. You can see it as well as I can.
Now, if this is what we’re doing in tablings then I’m going to ask that the House leaders have a discussion and deal with this subject once and for all because if it’s simply a matter of a member going out and xeroxing 150 blank pieces of paper and then standing up and tabling them, our Hansard people are invariably spending a waste of time trying to identify who it is. When we come back on April 3, I’m going to give you some other examples where, in fact, the names mentioned in the House do not correspond with the documents tabled. This is not the honourable way to do things.
So let's take a look at this. What I read out of this is that the Liberals are standing up and tabling documents that aren't even true. They say they have support for, I don't know, pick an issue, and when they table their letters or emails or even petitions it is falsified. And that is so dishonourable. You are not elected to sit in the Assembly of Alberta to make a mockery of the process.
We just celebrated our 100th anniversary of democracy in this province the other day and have a look at what Kevin Taft said here on page 443. Here he talks about how the Members of the Assembly have to be accountable and wanting more change in democracy. Obviously his party is not practicing what it preaches. But should that surprise you? Chanadler wrote an excellent piece on the difference between a Liberal and a Conservative the other day and I think this is further fodder for that discussion.
On April 3rd the Speaker is going to say more about this subject and I hope that it is not shown that the Liberals have made a mockery of our democratic process because if so they should be kicked out of the Assembly for their absolute disregard to the traditions laid down to us from the past.
Edmonton Centre, you are represented by a Liberal. A Liberal who is a part of this. How does that make you feel?
posted by Anonymous @ Friday, March 24, 2006
8 comments
8 Comments:
I am both disturbed and encouraged by this news!
The Alberta Liberals should be ashamed of themselves for making a mockery of the Legislature. But what can we expect? The word "Liberal" has become synonomous with corruption and scandal.
This just proves it to us once again! Furthermore, it proves that it is not only the federal Liberals who will do anything to get/keep power; the Alberta provincial Liberals will also go as low as it takes!
I am encouraged by the fact that they felt they needed to do this though. Clearly, if they needed to table false documents one of two possibilities exist.
One possibility is that Albertans are not as against what the GoA is doing and another possibility is that even if they are concerned, they are not taking their concerns to the Liberals.
And why would you? They have no credibility! If they did have any credibility before this, they definately won't now!
My only fear is that this very important story will get overshadowed by all of the other excitment!
The light bulb just turned on! Perhaps this is why the Liberals have decided to table fake documents.....because they want somebody to pay attention to them!
How sad is that?
This seems to be a little over the top for tabled documents that may not be clearly written or not directly pertain to Alberta but are related to some degree. Clerical errors and stretching the application of some documents to try to make them relevant to similar discussions is something that makes you roll your eyes, it’s not a mockery of the democratic system.
From what the speaker said, it appears he just wants to clean-up wasteful tablings and he’s not concerned about falsified documents.
The Liberal party is extremely weak in a number of areas surrounding policy and how they handle many issues. Time spent criticizing these points would seem to be much more productive than being petty with administrative issue. Who really cares about tablings anyway? The only people who are actual aware of them are political junkies and they should know the usefulness of tablings and petitions anyway so complaining about them is a waste of time.
The faux outrage should be saved for an issue that really matters. Conservatives acting like victims doesn’t really play well in Alberta. Lets discuss how the Liberals are trying to change the average Albertans perception of what is really being proposed with the third way in health care, using scare tactics. This is more dishonest than administrative errors in tablings.
Uhh. I said the Liberals were using scare tactics over the third way and energies would be better used addressing those points rather than administrative errors or unclear documents that never see the light of day. I think you’re confused as to what I wrote.
As soon as the Conservatives begin micro-criticism of worthless Liberal documents, they open up themselves to the same type of thing and you would be kidding yourself if you won’t admit that the government doesn’t stretch reality every once in a while to meet their own needs.
What do you mean by taking responsibility? Admitting that they made a mistake a few times, brought forward information that wasn’t directly related to Alberta but still had topical relevance, have them acknowledge that they will write more clearly, or have the Sergeant at Arms beat them with the mace?
I really don’t think the Speaker’s accusations are quite as damning as you think they are.
People should be held accountable but this stuff is just petty.
Ananymous #2 talks about how these tablings don't matter at the end of the day.
I agree with your point, but i am forced to watch the Liberals waste 10 to 15 minutes of valuable time in the House every day session is in, as a deliberate strategy to annoy those Members who want to get actualy work done.
It frustrates me to learn that these tablings are not even all genuine.
Clearly, the Liberals know that nobody really cares about these tablings; there hasn't been a single news article or mention about them in the media.
So i guess it is the Liberals that are being petty.
They are jumping around like children trying to get some attention, while valuable time - which can be used to debate issues that are important to Albertans - is being wasted.
This is why i think this issue IS important.
Because perhaps if it became news that the opposition is tabling documents that are not necessarily valid, they will stop this nonsense.
And the Members can spend their valuable time discussing the issues, rather than wasting it watching the opposition making a mockery out out democratic traditions.
anonymous 1.
"10 or 15 minutes of valuable time"
Was it time well spent to debate Rough Fescue, the official song and square dancing, which totaled hours, not minutes?
Get outraged at that type of crap then have a discussion about getting rid of a few minutes of tablings.
I generally agree with what's been posted here but feel this isn't the issue people should be pretending to get worked up about.
Why wouldn't people be able to tell MLAs their ideas are a waste of time? Have them bring their ideas forward but don't waste the "valuable time" of the legislation by spending hours talking about them. I don't care whether a MLA or Minister comes up with the idea, ideas can still be stupid.
I think you just need to read the Speaker's quote more carefully.
document is tabled which references the national child care program. In looking at some of these tablings, as the chair does from time to time, there’s absolutely nothing in the letter that has to do with the province of Alberta.
It doesn't relate directly to Alberta but there is a debate in this province because the National program will have some affect on the deal reached in Alberta. Kinda useless but nothing to get your panties in a knot about.
But more importantly than that there is no signature on the letter, there is no identification who the letter might be from, and the letter that’s tabled is absolutely unreadable.
Maybe the name was on a cover sheet which wasn't included in teh tabling? I don't know. I'm not trying to defend them, just point out that this isn't the mockery of the legislative system that you're going on about.
Maybe some good examples will some to light when the Speaker reviews more but I doubt it.
I'll tell you what is a waste of time and money -- half of the alberta government budget.
You're right, public health care is a waste of time and money!
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