Are we going to reward contempt of Parliament?

Dan Gardner, The Ottawa Citizen:

The man who wrote Two Cheers for Minority Government doesn’t cheer the prospect of yet another Harper minority.

“The status quo is just not tenable, for anybody,” says Peter Russell, professor emeritus at the University of Toronto and one of the country’s most respected political scientists. But a Conservative majority would be worse. “It would send a bad message about Parliamentary democracy if a government brought down for contempt, very serious contempt, on the finding of a Speaker, is rewarded with a majority. I think it would encourage Mr. Harper and maybe those after him to be contemptuous of Parliament. And then I think we’re in real trouble.”

It’s easy to forget that, in the mad rush of events leading up to the election call and the noise that followed, Stephen Harper’s government was formally found to be in contempt of Parliament — by vote in the House of Commons — for refusing to disclose the cost of several items on its agenda. It was what formally brought down the government. You might say it’s what this election is about.

Continue reading here.