OWEN SOUND – Following Harper’s decision to prorogue Parliament, Liberal candidate Kimberley Love announced that if MP Larry Miller was not going to go back to work, then she would represent the riding of Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound on Parliament Hill.
At the invitation of Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, Love joined returning Liberal Members in Ottawa on January 25 and has been working for the last two weeks on the Hill. She returned home to her Hopeville-area farm late Sunday, February 7, and will spend a few days with her family before returning to Ottawa.
She expects to spend a majority of her time representing the riding until Parliament resumes sitting in early March.
“It’s been a fantastic few weeks” says Love, “although it’s a pretty demanding schedule. We’ve had round-table and working sessions on a huge range of issues that, clearly, Canadians want to talk about. In the first week alone, we had round-tables on job creation – including an excellent discussion about rural jobs – as well as women’s issues, veteran affairs, Alzheimer’s and dementia, and a virtual forum on health and healthcare.”
“What was striking to me” Love continues, “is that Parliament was humming with activity in the last two weeks. These sessions are held in enormous rooms, and they have been just packed with people: individuals and organizations who were invited by the Liberal Party to share their views and concerns with us. In a few cases, these were people who had been waiting for the opportunity to come, it had been scheduled, but then Mr. Harper closed down Parliament. So we invited them to come anyway. People are desperate to talk to their government, and they have a prime minister who shuts them out. What was great about the last two weeks is that they had such a good opportunity to speak – with a receptive audience, and lots of media. Parliament is the house of the people. Mr. Harper has forgotten that. He seems to treat it like his personal playground – and is open only when it strikes his fancy.”
Love noted a few highlights, including a conversation with Flora Macdonald, former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister, and with Liberal Senator Romeo Dallaire, who attended several sessions.
“Dallaire was a military leader in the humanitarian tradition that we once associated with Canada,” says Love. “He is a real, live Canadian hero and a deeply moral man. People like Romeo Dallaire are exactly the kind of people we need in Senate. Not partisan thugs, but thoughtful, experienced, and informed individuals who have the long-term interests of the country in mind.”
“The governance session was a real eye-opener” says Love. “We have several independent “watchdog” agencies – whose job it is to provide oversight into government. Harper has been wrestling them to the chopping block – one by one. Last week, we heard from three of the top watchdogs who were fired for statements that were critical of government: a role which is supposed to be their job! We had Linda Keen (fired Chair of Canadian Nuclear Safety), Peter Tinsley (fired Chair of Military Police Complaints), and Paul Kennedy (fired Chair of Public Complaints against the RCMP). You know, we spent centuries building a democratic system of checks and balances to ensure that power was held by the people. When those who speak out are fired or slandered, as in Richard Colvin’s case, then democracy is in serious danger.”
“Remember” Love points out, “when there was a whiff of conflict of interest in Arran-Elderslie last year. People didn’t take very kindly to that. But the mayor there dealt with it in a very open transparent manner - and that’s what we should expect of our government in Ottawa too.”
Love has been posting some of her Parliament observations on her Facebook page, and will be consulting this winter with people in the riding on some of her findings from Ottawa.
