Seize the Agenda

One thing Stevie Harper has been extremely successful at over his political career is controlling the agenda. He has so many angles to accomplish this that he doesn’t walk down stairs, he flows like semi-set gelatin.

Whether it is calling early elections in defiance of his own fixed election date law, attempting to bribe sick MP’s to win a Confidence vote, Proroguing Parliament to avoid embarrassing questions, or painting a perfectly legitimate coalition as a coup d’etat, Our Steve manages to control the agenda.

Except…

His last proroguation blew up in his face, and the questions he sought to avoid, about the transfer to torture of Afghan detainees, are simply not going away. Indeed, with each passing day, the smell of cordite grows stronger, and we all know the smoking gun can’t be far away.

So how can those of us who love democracy help the process along?

Join the push to force the release of unredacted documents on the Afghan detainee scandal. Or as an alternative, to declare Harper and his Ministers in contempt of Parliament for refusing to do so.

Our old friends from C.A.P.P. seem to be refocusing their efforts, now that Parliament is back in session. If you haven’t visited the Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament Facebook page for a while, I suggest you do so now.

CAPP successfully foiled Harpers attempt to control the agenda by signing up hundreds of thousands of Canadians, and mobilizing 25,000 of them to attend rallies in opposition to the Harper Prorogument. Thousands of letters were sent to MPs and the MSM. Flash rallies dogged the steps of Ministers.

Now C.A.P.P is changing their name to Canadians Advocating Political Participation (Same acronym) and setting it’s sights to forcing the PM to respect the wishes of Parliament and to release the documents.

Many CAPPers feel this issue is a much greater threat to democracy than the prorogument, and I tend to agree.

Time for Canadians to sieze the agenda once more!