Frank Frink at A Creative Revolution alerted me to this un-fucking-believable story at Blogging a Dead Horse -- the Conservative Government is getting things done, alright, to us, not for us! From BADH:
"Three days ago, Dick Harris, the Conservative MP for Cariboo-Prince George announced that the Conservatives have named their local candidate Sharon Smith the “Skeena-Bulkley Valley liason to the federal government.
That’s right, seems that after only 20 months of trying it, the Conservatives have decided that listening to MPs – particularly those from other parties – is way too onerous and distracting. The solution is obvious really: replace them with compliant and agreeable people who look like MPs, pretend to be MPs, but have absolutely no legitimacy."
It might sound like just a lot of blah-blahing by the government about another boring appointment of another boring government wonk. Unfortunately Sharon Smith is the Conservative candidate for the Skeena-Bulkley Valley electoral district, and the job they're proposing she do is normally done by the person elected by the people of the S-BV electoral district to do such work, NDP MP Nathan Cullen. Not so boring now, is it! The Harper government is basically saying that it doesn't matter what the voters want; if a riding doesn't elect a Conservative, they'll install one. Because anything else just doesn't cut it, according to Dick Harris:
"Harris concluded, “Having an MP from the fourth party in the House just doesn’t cut it when it comes to actually getting things done for the folks in Skeena-Bulkley Valley."
Blog, call MPs, call media, call anyone who can shine a light on this scurrilous situation and let the government, our employees, know that this "appointment" is unacceptable. The extent to which this subverts the democratic process cannot be over-stated.
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