Arrogant Conservatives Ignore Commons

First Liberal and now Conservative foot-dragging has left Canada far behind nations in the environmental vanguard. It's also obvious that considerable sacrifice is now required to make up for lost time. Those are important considerations. But they are no longer the most pressing concerns. What's more worrying than the government's environmental sincerity is its default character. It's so cocksure, so blinded by the beauty of its convictions, that it bowls over anything in its way. Woven through its declared willingness to ride roughshod over Parliament is the same single-minded determination that is driving its attempts to add partisanship and ideology to the appointment of judges. Both are risky steps in the wrong direction. Administrations don't necessarily abide by the spirit, let alone the letter, of every bit of legislation, particularly when not considered as a test of confidence in the government. But diminishing elected MPs to advisers only slows overdue democratic reform even as it accelerates the already high-speed concentration of power at the political centre. http://www.thestar.com/opinion/article/181845 [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on February 16, 2007]

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