The Gate Keepers and Other Secrets

The Building


This is the Blackburn Building! On the 6th-floor office of this ordinary building sit the gatekeepers. It is the communications and consultations
hub of the Harper government. This is where "transparency & accountability" come to die, and the spin begins. This is Stephen Harper's "downtown". Here the gate keepers decide which ministers can speak on a certain subject and which ministers must keep their mouths shut. Failure to comply and that minister will be frozen out or in extreme cases kicked out of the Conservative Party.

Harper calls RCMP to investigate His own Minister


Helena Gurgeis now sits as an Independent Member of Parliament after Harper kicked her out of the Conservative Party.






                                           Having Your Cake & Eating it too!

Raitt & Paradis

When Minister's staffers were summoned to appear Dimitri Soudas (Harper's Spokesman) announced that staffers would no longer be allowed  for questions regarding their departments and only the Ministers could appear, but in a very bizarre turn of events Harper's Ministers Raitt and Paradis refused to appear before Government Committee. Public appearances by Ministers must be approved and vetted by Harper's Privy Council.


                                                                                           
                                                                                      Another One Bites the Dust

Ian Brodie(remember that guy who tried to tarnish Senator Obama's Presidental Campaign) and  head of the most powerful and secretive PMO in national history, was telling Garth Turner what he would be doing in the next few hours. Issue a media release,  praising the Prime Minister for appointing David Emerson to cabinet. And  immediately stop writing that blog.

Eight months later at a conservative caucus  meeting a motion to expel Turner was tabled. Jim Flaherty and Diane Finley asked for a show of hands and just like that Garth Turner was gone! 

Freedom of Information Denied


The law allows Canadians – for an initial fee of $5 – to ask Ottawa to disclose internal documents, reports or records. Within 30 days documents requested should be available. But under this Harper Government it takes months and months and sometimes even years.
The information department admits that complaints about the handling of requests shot up by 80 per cent last year to 2,387 from 1,317 the previous year. (However, more than half of the extra complaints concerned a single Crown corporation, the CBC.


Is this free press or Harper's own brand of "preferred" press.

It is now becoming apparent to all Canadians from coast to coast that if you cross Harper in any matter you will pay a price, whether you are a member of the conservatives, the liberals, the NDP or the media. 

Definition of Minority Government

In Canada, the party which wins the most seats in a general election forms the government. If the party wins just half or fewer than half of the seats in the House of Commons or legislative assembly, then the party forms a minority government. A minority government has to negotiate with other parties and adjust policies to get enough votes from other parties to pass legislation. A minority government must constantly work to maintain the confidence of the House of Commons or legislative assembly to stay in power. This is something that the Harpercons have never understood!