Liberals have positions too

February 28, 2014 · 0 Comments

At our last meeting of the Dufferin-Caledon Federal Liberal Association, I was elected to act as Director, Communications.
Among my responsibilities in that position is to communicate with our local press to present our perspective on federal political matters. As well as reacting to things already published, I am hoping to establish a relationship where we are asked our perspective on federal matters before they are set in print. I think nuanced views would be of greater interest to your diverse readers as well and provide them an opportunity to make more informed decisions.
For example, in your Feb. 13 issue, you had an article “Tilson unimpressed with Trudeau bouncing senators.” This article was largely presenting a one-sided opinion by David Tilson, who as a sitting Conservative, you would expect to downplay a position taken by the party they most fear, the Liberal Party of Canada.
Canadians rightly expect their elected, and elected representatives only, to speak for them. Stephan Harper himself campaigned on the wrongness of unelected senators having undue influence in parliament. Harper vowed he would never appoint a senator, although he has subsequently appointed 57 of them, including party hacks the likes of which include Patrick Brazeau, Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin. There are 32 unelected senators who are members of the Liberal Party which before Jan. 29 was close to half of the Liberal caucus. These senators will indeed remain honoured members of the Liberal Party, but they will no longer be included in caucus where parties set parliamentary tactics and policies. Our direction is to depoliticize the Senate and return it to an honourable “chamber of sober second thought” with senator removal from caucus a first critical step.
Justin Trudeau took a decisive action that requires no divisive, constitutional change, yet firmly set democracy as paramount in parliament.
George denHaan,
Director Communications,
Dufferin-Caledon Federal Liberal Association