Smells of an election???

Nasty politicking sidelines issues critical to Canada

The StarPhoenixMay 19, 2009


If one even accidentally tuned into the parliamentary channel last week, it was hard to mistake the smell of an election.

The daily question period, which is rarely an exercise in intelligent debate, has sunk to the level of visceral attacks to which it had sunk before Parliament broke for the summer a year ago.

At that time, things were so bad that, before calling Parliament back into session, Prime Minister Stephen Harper declared the dysfunctional atmosphere forced him to call an election. That was an unnecessary, $300-million exercise to bring civility to an unruly institution that was made even more so by the very actions of the man who claimed to be seeking functionality.