If you haven't yet done so, check out this video I shot last Thursday at the airport in Tuktoyaktuk, NWT while on tour with Prime Minister Stephen Harper:
It's that last line of Harper's that has put a big smile on the face of those in Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff's office — the “I think I make the rules” line. Ignatieff, in a stump speech in Elmsdale, Nova Scotia this morning, jumped on that line.
“Of course he meant it as a joke but I don't think it was entirely a joke. That told you — that took you right inside the head of Stephen Harper. That told you what's inside. 'I make the rules.' Well, unless I'm seriously mistaken, we make the rules! The people of Canada make the rules! We want a prime minister and team that respects the rules, that respects the Canadian people, that listen to the Canadian people, especially when the Canadian people have something to say that we might not necessarily want to hear.”
If you've got a minute-and-a-half, give the whole thing a listen as Iggy shows a bit of passion trying to connect the “I make the rules” comment to the census decision.
What a load of c&@p from Iggy: He doesn't get to make the rules unless he can actually win an election.
Harper did not 'win the right to make the rules'.
Last time I looked we still have a Parliamentary Democracy, on paper any way.
Why do Harper supporters hate democracy?
Suggest you take a basic civics class, Emily.
The way it works in Canada is that Canadians elect their representatives, the party with the biggest number of elected representative forms government, the leader becomes PM and he and the government get to make the rules. That's called “governing”, as in proposing and passing legislation.
Of course Ignatieff is likely more familiar with the US where citizens get to vote on individual propositions, eg Prop 8 in California on same-sex marriage.
The party with the “biggest” number of seats doesn't not necessarily form the government (they traditionally are asked first to try: but the governor general doesn't even have to ask them first).
The legislature proposes and passes laws, and the government is charged with carrying them out. Rule making by government is always constrained by the law.
Citizens in Canada sometimes vote on referendums proposed by provincial or federal legislatures, and some provinces have passed laws which even allow citizens to propose questions for referendums.
I guess I would fail jad's “civics class”.
You've got it kinda wrong. Our legislative body “Parliament” makes the rules, as in they create and pass laws. The PM and governing party is beholden to Parliament on law creation.
The PMO is more akin to the American executive branch, they assign ministers to head certain portfolios in the government, ensure that current laws and executed as they are written, and others along those lines.
Its slightly embarrassing that many people forget a basic fact about Canadian government. That we elect Parliaments and not Prime Ministers.