Feds to focus on tough-on-crime bills, fiscal responsibility, electoral reform

Government House Leader Jay Hill says the government's priorities will be to move the budget and economic issues through the House.

When Parliament returns, the government's legislative agenda is expected to be dominated by core Conservative issues such as tough-on-crime bills, fiscal responsibility and electoral reform in order to capitalize on support in a potential fall election, says a seasoned political insider.

"What I'm expecting is if you start with where they want to end up, which is election night and work backwards, I think it's clear to me that in...

By ContinuousQualityImprovement

I'm curious what electoral reform measures are being contemplated by the government. Democracy requires ongoing attention and improvement, and the prorogation debacle certainly needs addressing. I wonder if the Tories are actually contemplating measures aimed at increasing the power of their grassroots supporters and at empowering their own MPs? That would be very nice to see. On the other hand, a go-nowhere debate about the Senate would likely be a waste of time. Sure, we can all imagine ways that it might be improved, but the effort involved (ie, reopening the constitution) is likely to be well out of proportion to any potential benefits. For all of the Prime Minister's expressed outrage at the obstinacy of the Senate, out of 36 bills that were killed by prorogation, 28 were still in the House and hadn't been sent to Senate yet, 6 were in Senate and moving relatively smoothly, and only two (C6 and C15) had been amended and sent back to the House for reconsideration. This hardly seems to be evidence of obstructionism. Rather, Senate appears to be doing its job of expressing concern. As this CTV news story says (http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100104/gun_control_100104/20100104?hub=QPeriod), the Senate's concern in the first case was whether it was appropriate to have mandatory minimum sentences for people growing a small number of marijuana plants, and, in the second caes, whether sweeping search and seizure provisions were required to deal with situations in home-based businesses. In the grand scheme of things, the Conservatives should be more concerned about the centralization of power in the PMO and whether they want this to persist the next time a party other than themselves (presumably Liberal) comes to power. I would suggest that the answer to this is 'No', and that they should therefore institute reforms while they have the power to do so which are aimed at enhancing the power of ordinary MPs and strengthening the committee structure so that they will have more influence when they are next in opposition. A good dose of proportional representation would be welcome as well.