The Declaration of Non-Confidence
IN PARLIAMENT, DECEMBER 11, 2002.
Andrew Coyne
National Post
When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for a People to dissolve the Political bonds which have connected them to their government, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.
- We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, at least to hear their Wives tell it, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Peace, Order and tolerably Good Government
- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of Paul Desmarais,
- That whenever any Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to send it packing.
- The History of the present King of Canada is a History of repeated Injuries and Usurpations, all leading to the utter Disarray in which these Provinces now stand. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid World.
- He has turned Parliament into a Mausoleum, its Chambers silent, its Sessions devoid of new Business to consider.
- He has made the House of Commons and its Members irrelevant; demanding unquestioned obedience to the Whip even in matters of Conscience; invoking Closure on more than 80 Occasions; stifling Private Member s Bills; saving important policy Announcements for Liberal fundraising Dinners; and discarding other parliamentary Conventions whenever this proved Expedient.
- He has stacked the Senate with all manner of Patronage appointees, sometimes within a year or two of their retirement, for the sole purpose of voting as instructed on a specific bill or bills before giving way to Others equally deserving.
- He has done the same with regard to Executives of Crown corporations.
- He has erected a Multitude of new Offices and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their Substance.
- He has kept among us Standing Armies of spin doctors, hired guns and pollsters, evoking unprecedented public Cynicism; displayed a serial inability to tell the Truth, treated Cabinet Ministers as if they were Footmen.
- He has affected to render our Military impotent.
- He has suppressed, stonewalled or otherwise impeded the work of independent Judicial inquiries; threatened the careers of staff in the employ of Officers of Parliament; prevented a previous Auditor General from testifying on his report in Committee.
- He has called Elections barely half-way into his mandate, for no purpose other than to preserve himself in Power, and threatens to do so again.
- He has appointed the most undistinguished Cabinet in living Memory.
- He has imperilled good Relations with our most important Ally and Trading Partners; refused to deal seriously with threats to our common Security, such as Hezbollah; lectured them to be Nice on the Anniversary of the worst Atrocity in their History; and generally been as uncooperative and unsympathetic as it were possible to be, without actually taking the Side of the Enemy.
- He has used the Powers of his Office to benefit political Supporters in his Riding, to say nothing of certain Assets in which he maintained a continuing Interest.
- He has meddled in private Business as if the whole Country were his personal fiefdom; forbidding Banks to merge, though the Law allows them, while changing the Law to permit the formation of a Monopoly in the airline industry; tearing up a signed Contract for much-needed military Helicopters at enormous Cost in cancellation fees, while commissioning expensive and unnecessary Jets for his own use without Tender.
- He has wasted Billions more of our Treasure:
- For worse than useless Regional Development programs;
- For corrupt and unaccountable Native governments;
- For destructive and politically motivated Employment Insurance changes;
- For pointless Sponsorship programs that did little more than recycle public Funds into Liberal Party Coffers;
- For Human Resources programs that appear to have done the same, though in fairness they were so poorly managed no one really knows where the money went;
- For a Gun Registry that were supposed to pay for itself, but has now cost more than a billion dollars (and counting), to no visible Purpose.
- He has led his Party to the brink of Civil War, its Caucus divided, its most important Members spending less time governing than in campaigning to replace him.
- He has plundered our Seas, ravaged our Coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the Lives of our People. Actually, he hasn t done any of these things, but we know good Rhetoric when we see it.
- We, therefore, the Representatives of the People of Canada, in Parliament assembled, do solemnly Publish and Declare, that these several million Voters are, and of Right ought to be, Free and Independent People, that they are absolved from all Allegiance to the Liberal Party, and that all political Connection between them and the Liberal Government is and ought to be totally dissolved. And for the support of this Declaration of Non-Confidence, we mutually pledge to each other our Seats, our Pensions, and our Memberships at the Rideau Club.
- By Andrew Coyne, with apologies to Thomas Jefferson
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