Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Errors in Logic

Stephen Harper's first and third questions in QP yesterday:

Hon. Stephen Harper (Leader of the Opposition, CPC): Mr. Speaker, during the trip to Ireland it was more than apparent that the victims' families were not satisfied with the government's handling of the Air-India issue, and neither are most members of Parliament.

On April 12 a majority of the members of the House voted to direct the government to immediately hold a public inquiry into the Air-India issue.

Will the Prime Minister honour the will of the House, yes or no?



Hon. Stephen Harper (Leader of the Opposition, CPC): Mr. Speaker, it is amazing that when they were talking to Jean Chrétien's lawyers, unlike the hep C or Air-India cases, they were able to get immediate action and immediate agreement.
[Translation]

I have a third example. On November 2, 2004, the House passed a resolution calling on the government to recognize the existence of the fiscal imbalance. Almost eight months later, the Prime Minister still has not reacted.

Is the Prime Minister close to admitting that the fiscal imbalance exists?

Just a few hours after making these comments, Stephen Harper declared that the Same Sex Marriage legislation lacked legitimacy because a majority of federalist MPs opposed it. For anyone interested, the vote on the Air India inquiry passed by a 172-124 margin. Since the Bloc supported it, that means that...uh-oh...a majority of federalist MPs voted against the motion.

The fiscal imbalance (which, by the way, is the number one pet issue of the separatists) motion was carried by a 165-128 vote. Since the Bloc supported it, that means that...oh crap...a majority of federalist MPs voted against the motion.

So there you have. An hour before he screamed about a bill every court in Canada and a majority of MPs support as lacking legitimacy because it will pass on BQ support, Harper was urging the government to accept non-binding votes that were passed...thanks to the separatists. At least Martin will usually go a few days between hypocritical contradictions - Harper pulled it off in a matter of minutes.

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