Make MP's Do There Job-Write to Governor General

What can I do? Write a Letter

Category: Other

When: 02:29 AM September 4, 2008 to 02:29 AM September 8, 2008

Your action is critical to this issue. Please consider the facts and then decide if you want your voice heard. This is our power people! If you believe, please forward this widely to your contacts and get the word out asap. Sunday is the expected meeting with the Governor General, we can change that today.

Remember -Majority governments give more power to fewer Canadians, minority governments ensure a better chance that only the best decisions become part of our reality! There is power for the people in minority governments if we hold our elected officials to their duties!



Dear Fellow Canadians
This is our time, our opportunity and our responsibility. A fellow Canadian reminded me of our role in this electoral process. She responded to my Op-ed piece, on the threat of elections, title 'Elections are more than Games! (You can read it at this link-
http://coic.ca/main/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=34&Itemid=2 )

by writing to the Governor General. Her letter is below, followed by my own letter to the Governor General. This is an example of how we the people can and do have the ability to be the government we say we are. It is by asserting our democratic right in this manner that we let our politicians know we allow them their positions, we elect them to do their job, in our best interest not for their best interest. This is a critical moment in our history. Please join with me and send your own letter to the Governor General of Canada, (or you can edit one of the two I have copied below) if you believe this is premature election is a waste of our money, a misuse of time, energy and not conducive to 'good governance'.
It is probably most effective to send by fax, and to notify your local media.

Thank you
Catherine Whelan Costen
403-660-0449

Letter 1
September 4, 2008

Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean

Your Excellency,

Should the Prime Minister of Canada ask you to dissolve Parliament, please speak with the Leader of Canada’s Official Opposition Party – to learn whether he has sufficient support, from members of the House of Commons, to form a functional Government. Canada’s laws and Constitution allow you both to decide and to act in the best interest of the People of Canada.

Below is a summary of an email from a concerned citizen in the Prairies: Catherine Whelan Costen. It describes the situation as a vast majority of Canadians possibly see it.

Canadians want responsible government, not political war games. Elections are expensive undertakings and the Canadian public pays for these activities.

Canadians paid for the change to election laws that sets fixed election dates. Politicians argued for and against, but now that it is set -- the governing party has decided it doesn't accept what it won. Rather than threaten to bring down the government over the issues, our politicians ought to find a method of negotiation to create win-win solutions.

Canada's parliamentary system depends on our elected members of Parliament respecting their positions as public servants. We expect my government to work for us. It's what we want, but not what we see. Government’s role is not to win us over.

Canadians do not understand why they cannot hold elected MPs to their promises to the people. We have very little ability to hold our elected members to act in our best interest. We both can and are demanding that our elected officials resume their duties until the next election in the Fall of 2009. Were only they listening!

Your Excellency, should the PM or other unwilling to resume their duties, Canada’s laws and Constitution allow you both to decide and to act in the best interest of the People of Canada.

Respectfully yours,



(signature)

Catherine Blake




Letter 2-
Her Excellency
the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, C.C., C.M.M., C.O.M., C.D.
Governor General of Canada
Rideau Hall
1 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A1 Transmitted via fax : (613) 998-8760


September 4, 2008

Your Excellency

In the matter of the recent news reports of the Prime Minister of Canada suggesting he will request you dissolve government, due to his lack of confidence. I am attaching an Op-ed I wrote recently, which I feel reflects the feelings of myself and many Canadians.


Canadians have felt powerless for far too long. We are tired of being at the mercy of the whims of our elected officials. We have hired them to do a job, to represent the people of this nation and hold our best interests in the highest esteem. I am requesting that you ask the member of the Official Opposition whether he feels he has the confidence of the majority of members of the House and if so, allow him to take over as our Prime Minister. (As is part of our Canadian Convention ) If the recent news reports are correct, it is clear then that the current Prime Minister does not want his job and does not feel he can serve. Therefore it is incumbent on you to represent the people’s best interest. I quote our Queen from this government website;

Parliamentary democracy has fostered tolerance and flexibility – a good balance between individual rights and collective responsibilities. And this is because the constitutional monarchy has always placed the emphasis on people in community – as it were, a national family with the Sovereign as its head.

Queen Elizabeth II

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

October 1987

http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/cpsc-ccsp/fr-rf/couronne_crown_canada/4_e.cfm

I submit that it is neither in the best interest of Canadians individual rights nor our collective responsibilities, to be paying for another election at this time. I submit that the House was sitting in the spring and did not lose confidence at that time, they have not resumed the next session and there has not been a motion which was defeated. The Prime Minister’s meetings with the leaders of the other political parties, requesting a statement of confidence outside the House is not productive to good government. This is not a game. A minority government should not request a blank cheque from the opposition leaders. This is not responsible government.

I quote from an article on the government website, in bold is the critical point:

“First, in the United States the head of state and the head of the government are one and the same. The President is both at once. Here, the Queen, ordinarily represented by the Governor General, is the head of state, and the Prime Minister is the head of the Government. Does that make any real difference? Yes: in Canada, the head of state can, in exceptional circumstances, protect Parliament and the people against a Prime Minister and Ministers who may forget that “minister” means “servant,” and may try to make themselves masters. For example, the head of state could refuse to let a Cabinet dissolve a newly elected House of Commons before it could even meet, or could refuse to let Ministers bludgeon the people into submission by a continuous series of general elections. The American head of state cannot restrain the American head of government because they are the same person.”

http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/idb/forsey/can_am_gov_print-e.asp

Further I quote the importance of minority government (again from a government website) , surely ensures that only legislation that is in the best interest of Canadians can or will be passed. If legislation cannot be agreed to by the majority of members of Parliament then I submit to you that it is not the will of the people of Canada.


“A reality of “minority governments” is that their life is often quite short. If the government is defeated in the House of Commons or legislature on a vote of non-confidence, the Crown’s representative must either dissolve Parliament by calling an election or call on yet another member to attempt to form a government that would enjoy majority support. Far from existing only in political theory, this prerogative power has indeed been exercised in Canada — for example, in Ontario in 1985.”

http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/cpsc-ccsp/fr-rf/couronne_crown_canada/4_e.cfm

In keeping with Canadian tradition, Convention and attitude desiring good, responsible government I am requesting that you act on behalf of the people of Canada, and assert your authority in this matter, sparing the people both the expense and effort of an unnecessary election.

Yours very respectfully

Catherine Whelan Costen

cc: Media





Catherine Whelan Costen
Website: http://web.mac.com/whelancosten
Email: cathpublish@wildroseinternet.ca

“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein

Contact information: cathpublish@wildroseinternet.ca

Web link for more information: www.coic.ca

by Canadianinmotion