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YOUR TWO CENTS:

1. John L. Matchim says:

   Mar 20, 2012 at 5:03 pm

   Banged it on the head again Hans.

   However, there is a factual error in the line: “Can a prime minister… purport to legitimately act as the head of state?”

   The prime minister of Canada is not the head of state; that’s Queen Elizabeth II. This means that she is the embodiment of the state and the source and authority of its laws. The prime minister is the head of government who pledges his or her loyalty to the Crown and seeks advice from her imperial viceroy at Rideau Hall (the Governor-General).

   Makes absolutely no sense to me. This is why the governor-general can prorouge parliament, since the rule of law resides in Buckingham Palace, not in the people who live in the country itself. Go figure.
2. Scott says:

   Mar 14, 2012 at 8:39 pm

   The irony of this very disturbing situation, where the robo-calls are one of many of the issues ( Veteran affairs, retirement rights…) that surround the Harper, dare i use the term, regime that has befallen our nation, is that the robo calls were used in an election that was basically called for the Conservative contempt for Parliament. Robo calls help an impeached government get a majority? Sounds very plausible to me.
3. J. Keep says:

   Mar 13, 2012 at 11:23 am

   I’m not one to jump on the anti-bureaucracy bandwagon. I think in Canada we have a fairly well functioning bureaucracy, as far as they go, and our civil servants tend to be efficient and pleasant over all. Barring those who work with student loans, that is, my experiences with our Canadian bureaucracy has been mostly positive.

   However, like everything, it’s all been eroding in recent years. First with the Liberal’s, then the Conservatives, things have been falling further and further into a state of corruption and disrepair.

   And thank you terribly for bringing up the issue of the Governor General. Canada needs a new, non-monarchical, position of equivalent and legitimate authority, much like most other parliamentary countries have. We need a strong senate. We need a variety of checks and balances in our government to brace us against the turbulent swings of political favour and ideology.

   And the Harper government’s move to exclude professionals from the decision making process, so that there’s less knowledgeable opposition and information to oppose their purely ideology based legislation is especially worrisome. We live in a complex world, no ideology will be enough to provide the best answer all the time, and we need pragmatism and carefully gathered information to find proper solutions.