By Arthur Weinreb
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Parliament resumed on Monday after the winter break and with it of course came the comedic Animal House 45-minute segment otherwise known as Question Period.
It was no surprise that Question Period started off with questioning about the Conservative government's new major issue -- the environment. The sittings coincided with the Conservative's release of their non-election election style attack ads that show clips of former Liberal leadership candidates criticizing Stphane Dion for the Liberals' handling of the environmental portfolio while they were in power. And Harper's new love for everything green gave Steffi the chance to try out his newly acquired phrase, "climate change denier" that he now uses quite frequently with all the implications that those words contain. All of this was so predictable that watching the first Question Period of 2007 was similar to watching a rerun of Gilligan's Island for the umpteenth time sans of course being able to watch Ginger. The only fun part in watching this was that Dion asked a lot of his questions in English and those listening in English had the opportunity of trying to guess exactly what he was saying.
After all of this predictable bickering about which party is the only one that can save the planet, there was bound to be a break in the tedium and there was. Liberal MP Anita Neville (Winnipeg South Centre) rose to ask a question concerning the issuing of Canadian passports. Neville chastised the government for the passport offices not being better prepared to handle the onslaught of applications leading up to January 23. Neville stated,
Mr. Speaker, Conservative incompetence has left thousands of Canadians unable to get a Canadian passport in a timely manner. Everyone knew about the American passport deadline, yet nothing was done to prepare.
Later on Neville told the house the harrowing tale of Joanne Scott, undoubtedly one of the Manitoba MP's constituents.
Joanne Scott was trying to take her family to Disneyland. "It's horrific," she said of the government's efforts. She does not believe Canada's minority government when it says that everything is going great. Why was the Conservative government so incompetent that nothing more was done to prepare for a passport crunch that everybody saw coming?
The American Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative came into effect on January 23. Part of the WHT requires that commencing on that date, Canadians who want to enter the United States by air must be in possession of a valid passport. Neville is quite correct when she says not once but twice that everybody knew about this and everybody saw it coming. The WHT Initiative was well publicized for months including a lot of media coverage that criticized Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day for not being able to get the U.S. to back down from imposing the passport requirement. It is hard to believe that someone like Joanne Scott, who was able to plan and book a trip to Disneyland or anywhere in the United States, didn't know about it.
The most likely scenario is that Scott and others who lined up with her in the middle of the night in order to apply for a passport knew about the deadline and simply procrastinated. It wasn't until December when the offices around the country became subject to heavy lineups. Procrastination is a part of life but according to the Winnipeg MP, this is somehow the government's fault. If thousands of people wait until the last minute to apply for a needed passport, it's the fault of the government that they have to face long line ups or if the passport takes longer than expected to be issued.
Neville's criticism of the government for not moving thousands of more employees into passport offices so that poor Joanne would not have to face the "horrific" experience of enduring a long line up in order to see Mickey Mouse is just another example of the nanny state gone wild. Not only must the government provide for everyone's "needs"; they must provide for everyone's "wants". The statements made by Anita Neville were nothing more than a sad commentary on present day society and what people expect from their government. If lining up for a passport that could have been obtained sooner counts as horrific in this country, we must have it pretty good even though the country is run by Scary Stephen.
But thanks Anita -- it was a welcome break from all that hot air talk.
Pursuant to Title 17 U.S.C. 107, other copyrighted work is provided for educational purposes, research, critical comment, or debate without profit or payment. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for your own purposes beyond the 'fair use' exception, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. Views are those of authors and not necessarily those of Canada Free Press. Content is Copyright 1997-2024 the individual authors. Site Copyright 1997-2024 Canada Free Press.Com Privacy Statement