On Friday March 25, 2011 the minority Harper Government lost a no confidence vote for contempt of parliament. The night before that fateful and historic vote, Rex Murphy appeared in his Point Of View slot on CBC’s The National, and ridiculed the opposition parties for their highly-anticipated action.
The mellifluous mensch labeled a fourth election in seven years “unwanted, unwarranted and unwelcome,” an opinion shared by most of Ottawa’s punditocracy. They cavalierly chose to ignore that a House Affairs Committee triggered the vote by establishing the government’s contempt of parliament for, among other things, refusing to supply adequate information about the cost of the F-35 jets.
An abysmal turnout of Canadian voters at last May’s election, resulted in only 24 per cent of eligible electorate giving the Tories a narrow majority.
Eleven months later, we learn from the new Auditor General that parliament and the people of Canada were indeed duped with totally false figures surrounding the proposed F-35 purchase.
That 2011 all-party committee’s findings, maligned and ignored by most pundits, were correct.
The Tories gained seats by their Machiavellian machinations and by voter apathy.
Philosopher Alexis de Toqueville’s statement “In democracy we get the government we deserve,” was true in 19th century France, and it’s surely true in Ottawa today — thanks to our apathy.
Bernie Smith
Parksville
