NEWS RELEASE

February 6, 2004                                                                                              For Immediate Release

PAUL MARTIN’S REFORMS WON’T ADDRESS LIBERALS’ 10-YEAR REIGN OF ERROR

“Martin’s ‘democratic deficit’ is really a democratic black hole,” says Breitkreuz.

Ottawa  – Today, Garry Breitkreuz, Deputy House Leader for the Official Opposition, attacked Paul Martin’s democratic reform package.  “The Prime Minister’s proposals do next to nothing to address the democratic black hole created during the Liberal government’s 10-year reign of error.  Martin promises to address western alienation and then says that Liberal MPs won’t even be allowed a free vote on the billion-dollar gun registry.  Wednesday night on national television, Mr. Martin said the objective of this most recent review of the registry is to remove the ‘irritants’.  Let me point out the obvious – there are no irritants for criminals in the Firearms Act.  If he won’t allow a free vote on a program that only has 40% support across Canada, why should Canadians believe anything else that’s in his so-called Action Plan for Democratic Reform?” asked Breitkreuz.

Martin’s proposals fall far short of the many reforms proposed by the Official Opposition over the years.  His “Action Plan for Democratic Reform” did not include:

·    An elected Senate;

·    Fixed election dates;

·    Fully votable free votes for all private members bills;

·    Fully votable Supply motions;

·    A truly independent Ethics Commissioner that reports directly to Parliament and has the power to scrutinize the Prime Minister and his Cabinet;

·    Committee approval of all government appointments – including Supreme Court;

·    Speaker control over the abuse of “closure” in debate;

·    Parliamentary disallowance power over government “Regulations”;

·    Q&A following Ministers’ speeches in the House of Commons;

·    Committee review of citizens’ petitions;

·    Citizen-initiated referenda;

• Whistle-blower legislation to protect honourable bureaucrats; and
• Federal public service jobs available to all Canadians equally.

“While Martin was Finance Minister he used closure and time allocation 13 times to ram his own department’s bills through Parliament.  He’s already committed himself to ramming the election boundaries bill through Parliament so he can call an election in April.  He has already deferred four major issues until after the next election: Same-sex marriages, the Maher Arar case, $161 million to his own company and the billion-dollar gun registry.  His Action Plan is more about getting him elected before Canadians find out that a Paul Martin government will be just as dictatorial, error prone and ethically challenged as the old Jean Chretien government,” concluded Breitkreuz.

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