Welcome to Parliament Hill.
So our 39th Parliament is set to begin tomorrow. 67 new MP's will take their seats on the Hill. I expect this to be every bit as interesting as the previous Parliament. I'm watching to see how Mr. Harper does in his new job. Of course, my expectations are pretty low, so I’ll not be disappointed……who knows he may even surprise me a bit.
Monday will be the election of the new speaker of the house. Tuesday will bring the Throne speech. Just one note on this, does anyone else find it a tad ironic that the man who led the charge about not being consulted about the contents of the Throne Speech in the last minority parliament has done little if any consultation himself with the opposition?? True, he did have those “little” meetings with the other leaders, but not sure that really qualifies as “consultations.” Anyway, I digress, on Wednesday, we will see the first question period. Expect tons of questions about the Emerson crossing, and the Michel Fortier appointment. I somehow doubt the opposition is going to let go of these two issues yet, at least until something else comes up to hammer the Tories with.
I expect the childcare issue to be the biggest fight of this session. The opposition will fight the cancellation of the deals already made, as will the provinces. This one should be the toughest of the conservative’s 5 initiatives to carry through.
Let the games begin!!
