It's what I do; I can't help myself, but also just because it would be sort of expected. Instead, The Globe and Mail editorial, commenting on the government's view of our response to its discussion paper, is that, “Those contentions are cynical bunk.” I love it: “bunk”.
The Trudeau government is hawking a utopian vision of Parliament, in which members from different parties politely discuss the government’s proposed legislation on a schedule set by mutual agreement, and there are cheers all around when the House enacts laws that are a perfect reflection of the selfless compromises agreed to in a collegial fashion on committees and in the House.
I will say this much, though: the Liberal government's actions certainly have the NDP and the Conservatives as close to a utopian arrangement as we ever thought would exist in terms of how well we're working together to defend our collective rights, as little as they are now, from being further eroded.
And obviously they're being very sarcastic.
It is interesting how, when we are working well together, in the same way as at the public accounts committee, it almost does reflect that. And it does happen, and it did happen, and was happening in this committee while we were dealing with exactly this subject in two different studies.
I just got the hook from the chair. You saw that, too, eh? You're waiting to see how quickly I came to heel. It was really quickly, because I do know where the power is.
Moving on:
In this paradise of reason, the government has no hidden agenda and never tables politically motivated bills that are deeply flawed. There are no Fair Elections Acts, no bills reducing citizens’ privacy in the name of fighting terrorism–and no blatant partisanship of any kind. There are just sunny ways passing beneath crisp rainbows.
Sometimes, I have to tell you, the Prime Minister gives the impression that he really does see some things that way, but that's just a personal observation. It's not meant to take away from his obvious other skills, or he wouldn't be where he is right now, in New York as the Prime Minister of the country talking to the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
However, these are interesting observations nonetheless.
It continues:
It would be very convenient for Mr. Trudeau if he could fool Canadians into thinking that Parliament needs a “recalibration of the rules to balance the desire of the minority’s right to be heard with the majority’s duty to pass its legislative agenda,” another line from the government’s discussion paper.
But this, too, is bunk.
I love “bunk”. That's a great word for speech-making. It's perfect: bunk. I love it.
But this, too, is bunk. Is the Prime Minister really saying that there is an imbalance in favour of the opposition that is preventing his government from doing its “duty”? That the chips are stacked against him? If so, he’s being absurd.
Again, it's The Globe and Mail. They often try to be the grown-up in the room.
Look at the language it's using. Not us, although I would have loved to have some of that language. It's The Globe and Mail, and it's speaking on an issue in which the government is trying to frame what it wants as motherhood and modernization.