Proud to be Canadian.  That's how I felt when I watched the anti-prorogation rallies roll out across the country and elsewhere last Saturday.  Twenty-five thousand citizens took to the streets demanding MPs walk the talk when it comes to practising democracy.  Well done, Canadians!

The pundits are active as well (see, for example, Impolitical's post today, and the latest column from Travers).  Provocative questions are being asked.  All in all, a healthy dialogue is emerging (h/t Scott's Diabtribes).    Now all we need to do is focus on the right question.  Which is this:  Why does the Prime Minister have so much power?  Answer:  Because the House of Commons no longer holds the PM to account.  Next question:  What should be done?  Answer: Insist that MPs take orders from their constituents, not their party leaders.   Question: What is the likelihood of this change happening?  Answer: Not any time soon.  Conclusion?  Perhaps, as hinted at by govloop [dot] ca, an independent, appointed Senate is, after all, Canada's last best chance for democracy.  Food for thought, eh?

I had conversations on Twitter with a few old school journalists who kept insisting that the Facebook protest was not a 'real' protest.  They then, after the success of the rallies and on-the-street protests, were trying to figure out how many 'real' protesters there were (vs. the Facebook members of the anti-prorogation site).

One even said to me that they understood Facebook to be a useful 'tool'.  I explained that Facebook (and other social networking sites) are not just tools -- though they proved to be effective at getting warm bodies out protesting after all -- but communities in and of themselves.  And that the political punditry, and politicians, would ignore them at their peril.

Not sure that too many of us here in Canada were as disturbed as we should have been at the debate around Afghanistan detainees.  I was most appalled by the way the Government was so quick to push the blame to the public servants, not taking any accountability for it at all.  I'd hate to be the poor souls working day and night on the Afghanistan file only to be hung out to dry.  It was refreshing to see the support for democracy in an otherwise far too apathetic country. 

TMilne, well said.

Love the idea of an appointed Senate being what saves Canadian democracy.  Deliciously ironic....yet it hits the mark. 

It has been the Senate who has been holding the gov to account lately, with Bill C6 -- that threatened to move Canada one step closer to police state tactics, and with Bill C10, which threatened to censor Canadian-made films (by bureaucrats and parliamentarians, no less). 

Keep up the good work Senators!

Further to my previous comment -- you are quite right to believe that an appointed and independent Senate might really be our last best chance for a real democracy. Who would have thought. And kudos for making the Senate an institution we can really respect.

Hi

The thing I find most desturbing about the prorogation is that it leaves the issue of detainee treatment in Afghanistan hanging. And I think the thing I find most disturbing about this is the degree to which both press and parliamentarians treat the foundational principal of ministerial responsibility as a sort of quaint anachronism. To my mind (and I have taught public administration to both undergraduates and graduate students) this is the foundation of democratic government in our Westminster system. This is particularly disturbing in the case of a minority government where the opposition parties, if they had the courage (really a quaint notion) could effectively hold this government to account if they chose.

The real danger of a parliamentary system is the potentially dictitorial powers of the executive. It is not the job of the press (though that would surely help) to avoid this through effective accountability. And it is certainly not the job of polling firms. It is the job of Parliament. To my mind the failures here are as much (and perhaps more) those of a truly cowardly opposition.