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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 62

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 2, 2022 11:00AM
Context: House Hansard - 62 - May/2/22
Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)
  • May/2/22 1:59:22 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I have to ask the hon. House leader of the official opposition to reflect on this: that the dysfunctionality of this place cannot be blamed on one recognized party. When the House does not work well, it is because we have brought the partisanship of election campaigning into the daily work of the House, which is not how it should be. It is not how it always was in the past. I think it would go away if we changed to proportional representation as our voting system to increase co-operation in this place. Since the Conservatives had more votes in the last two elections, are they ready to consider perhaps changing our voting system?
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Context: House Hansard - 62 - May/2/22
Mr. Luc Thériault
  • May/2/22 5:28:13 p.m.
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Madam Speaker, once again, my colleague is unable of rising above partisanship. That being said, my criticism of the government is that it introduced in a closure motion a file that it has mismanaged and has been very lax in addressing. Had it not been for the separate vote we were able to obtain concerning medical assistance in dying, we would have been forced to vote against it, when all we want is for that file to move forward. I will stop there because the member in question is always very partisan. He thinks that, by pointing a finger at the official opposition and saying that it would have done worse than his government, his government’s current actions are justified. However, it is the Liberals who are in power now.
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Context: House Hansard - 62 - May/2/22
Ms. Elizabeth May (Saanich—Gulf Islands, GP)
  • May/2/22 7:51:48 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, to my hon. colleague from Calgary Shepard, this comes from having the memory of this. We have had a lot of people back and forth in the House saying, “Well, this did not happen when the Conservatives were in power.” I just want to make it clear that there is a problem, and I think it is reflected in the culture of Parliament and the change that has happened over decades. I worked as a staffer to the minister of the environment in the 1980s. We did not have the sense then that the opposition existed to obstruct. That has been a growing sense, and certainly during my first time in Parliament, which started 11 years ago today, May 2, the Harper Conservatives, in majority, moved us to sitting every day of the week until midnight to catch up with the agenda. No one said they were to blame for not managing themselves properly. We need to work together far better, which requires setting partisanship aside after an election.
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