Hitting the bricks, waving placards, raising voices in protest is something Canadians don't do very often. Especially in the winter when it's cold and you want a tot of brandy in your Tim's just to keep from freezing.
But yesterday, according to "From facebook to filling the streets", more than 25,000 fed-up Canucks braved the elements in two dozen cities to protest again Tory Prime Minister Stephen Harper's slap in the face of democracy. I refer to his totally unnecessary and indefensible decision to prorogue Parliament, so that he can effectively govern by fiat until spring.
Nothing like this has been seen since...let's see...since Clarence Campbell suspended Maurice Richard for the rest of the NHL season. And that demonstration [riot, surely! ed.] was confined to Montréal. This time people turned out from coast to coast!
What's it all about, anyway? What is it that has normally placid and apathetic Canadians so exercised? An editorial in the Globe and Mail puts it down to our collective disgust at "the subjgation of parliament to prime ministerial whim".
The way I see it, something more, something greater, has been demonstrated. Mr Harpoon clearly thought he could get away with avoiding parliamentary scrutiny of his government and himself by shutting Parliament down twice in one year.
Harper seems to have thought that the Canadian people would not notice or would not understand or would not care...or all three. He was wrong!
Now let us see if the people will remember, come the next general election. And please let it be soon!
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