Do Conservative Party MPs represent Stephen Harper or their constituents?

This is obviously a question which leads to a lot of confusion in the minds of parliamentarians today - right up to the Government House Leader, the Hon. Peter Van Loan. If MPs are confused I can be forgiven for my own confusion in the matter, and so can you. Fortunately we now have Elizabeth May in Parliament to explain it to all of us in very simple words that even I can understand.

Elizabeth May: Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my hon. colleague from Langley, as well as the hon. member for Vegreville—Wainwright. As a specific case, may I say this is one of the most important points of privilege I have heard in the brief two years, almost, that I have been serving here? It cuts to the core of what is wrong with parliamentary democracy that the hon. government House leader could put before you a sports metaphor that we are here as teams, as brands or colours, and we are all to take instructions from our team boss.

We are not here as teams. The principle of Westminster parliamentary democracy is that we are here as representatives of our constituencies and our constituents. We are merely incidentally members of political parties. Political parties do not exist in our Constitution. They are not an essential part of our democracy. They have grown to be seen to be the most interesting thing going on, and we have grown to see politics as some sort of sport. However, democracy is not a sport. We are not playing on teams, and each individual member has individual rights, and the members for Langley and Vegreville—Wainwright feel their rights have been infringed.

I would add that I rose on a point of order to you some many months ago on the question of S.O. 31s and the fact that they were increasingly being used for purposes that, while not against our Standing Orders as they are written, are against the spirit of Standing Orders as described by former Speaker Madam Justice Sauvé, who pointed out that they should typically speak to matters of local concern in our constituencies and should not be used as a place for attacks on others, specifically ad hominem personal attacks.

At the time you said you might comment on that later. Perhaps this point of privilege might give you a chance to further elucidate when it is inappropriate for the approved S.O. 31s from the Conservative war room to be very vicious attacks and the ones that members wish to make about the concerns of their own constituents to be censored and prevented from being presented in this place.

from Elizabeth May's Parliamentary web site.
http://elizabethmaymp.ca/parliament/statements/2013/03/26/privilege-s-o-31/

Dear Hon. Bob Chiarelli, Minister of Energy:

There is still time to make the right decision on nuclear.

It’s a bad idea to waste billions by refurbishing the Darlington nuclear reactors to keep them running until 2055. This plan is terrible for both our economy and our environment.

No nuclear project in Ontario’s history has come in on budget or on time. The existing Darlington reactors were supposed to cost $4 billion, but came in $10 billion over budget. The recent refurbishment at Bruce Nuclear is $2 billion over budget.

At a time of record deficits, we should not be wasting billions on old technology. In fact, we are still paying for the debt from previous nuclear projects.

Your government decided to exempt this project from a provincial environmental review, which means that we still don’t have an independent analysis of the risks and costs of this project.

I urge you to conduct an independent review of costs and alternatives to nuclear. It is unacceptable and irresponsible that the Ontario government has nothing in place to protect ratepayers or taxpayers from nuclear cost overruns.

Nuclear is an inflexible source of base-load power that removes incentives for conservation, efficiency or more affordable sources of power.

Committing billions to nuclear will hurt recent strides in developing other sources of energy, including renewables, and hamper our ability to take advantage of new, emerging technologies. Your government has already directed agencies to stop the expansion of renewable energy in 2018 to reserve grid capacity for nuclear.

If the cost to our pocketbook isn’t enough, nuclear also presents a significant threat to our environment.

Darlington’s use of Lake Ontario water for cooling destroys millions of fish, larvae and eggs each year, and Darlington is also a major source of thermal and chemical pollution in the lake.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, THERE IS STILL NO PLAN OR COST GUESTIMATE TO DEAL WITH NUCLEAR WASTE. Meanwhile, the amount of dangerous nuclear waste continues to grow. We also face the risk of a serious nuclear accident in the most populated region of the province right over and next to the most important source of the region's drinking water.

More affordable, reliable and safer alternatives to nuclear exist. The Darlington refurbishment should be halted until the need for, alternatives to, and environmental effects of nuclear are fully and independently considered.

Thank you,
Terence C McCann
Holland Landing, ON

More nuclear at Darlington is the wrong move

Send a message to Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli to tell him that that nuclear is the wrong move.

Israeli Settlers Dump Sewage On Palestinian Land

This is simply wrong. It is also uncouth arrogance and the most effective way to promote conflict while others are praying sincerely for peace in the Middle East and for good relationships between Israel and its neighbours in particular. It is a successful way to retain the moral low ground. There are Israelis who feel even more strongly than I do about this. What is happening in the Middle East is certainly very complicated and I have no idea how it should best be resolved. I am certain, however, that this is not the way.

The saga reminds me of the behaviour of the British in India in Gandhi's time. Let me not get started on the South African apartheid analogy.

For the full faeces filled details of the contamination and stench click on this link to Open Zion in The Daily Beast.

Israeli settlers from Shavei Shomron have recently started dumping untreated sewage on the farmland in Sebastiya, a small Palestinian town in the West Bank just north of Nablus. Today, Sebastiya organized its first popular demonstration in 36 years specifically to draw attention to the issue of the sewage contaminating their lands.  Read full report here.

Photographs taken in the Shavei Shomron area. Once on the page search for "Shavei".

Credit http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=490815

It should be noted that, not only am I not anti-Jewish, which you might think from my comments above, but I am very sympathetic to the Jewish cause and am very proud to be associated by marriage with aid given to some Jews by my wife's family in Holland during World War II. There is a world of difference between being a critic and being an opponent.