Liberal

Running water for all

@bobraeMP: Island Lake - this is where most people get their water - running water for all ! #cdnpoli http://yfrog.com/khiwafrj

There are hundreds of communities where our fellow Canadians live in substandard housing, without running water or indoor plumbing.  We have the technology and the money to deal with this disgrace, but we don’t yet have the deep political will to make change happen.

Twenty years ago as Premier of Ontario I signed a “Statement of Political Relationship” with First Nations leadership, and followed it up with unprecedented investment in infrastructure in isolated northern communities.  We even shamed the federal government in to joining us in a partnership to provide running water and indoor plumbing in communities that had before been without modern sanitation and an assured supply of clean water.

It can be done, and the reserves in northern Manitoba have started a “running water for all” campaign that led to my motion in the House of Commons that was passed last year. The Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Duncan said investments would be made.

Watch APTN coverage of Bob Rae's trip to Island Lake (Click image above)

They’re only happening slowly, and at this pace it won’t happen for another decade or more.  Together with Manitoba Liberal Leader Jon Gerrard and Grand Chief David Harper we visited the St. Theresa Point First Nation and saw, as was the case in Attawapiskat this winter, conditions that just shouldn’t exist in Canada.  A 30-year-old young man with cerebral palsy has to walk 30 yards on crutches to go to an outhouse.  A woman recovering from hip surgery has to do the same.  It’s shameful and it shouldn’t be happening but it is. Canada can and must do better.

We also need to find better and faster ways to fund the infrastructure on reserves, including housing.  The interminable bureaucratic waiting lists condemn another generation to conditions that can only be described as degrading.

It is not the time for despair.  It is a time for constructive, well focused, anger and a determination to change the way we deal with this challenge.  We can turn our heads away no more.  When Stephen Harper walked away from Kelowna he cost Aboriginal people a great deal, but with the right on the ground campaigns we can keep trying to force change.

- Bob Rae

The power of the Prime Minister

In the late eighteenth century, the British Parliament debated a famous resolution, worded simply as follows, “That the powers of the King are increasing, and ought to be reduced”. Since the time of the Glorious Revolution a hundred years before, Britain’s Parliament was seized with a major issue: the powers of the monarch were growing with patronage, and a corrupt electoral system.

The issue before our Parliament today is remarkably similar. No Prime Minister in history has gathered so much power for himself. His cabinet and caucus cower in fear of retribution. He appoints cabinet, caucus chairs, regional caucus and hundreds of jobs throughout the public service. From the Governor General to Officers of Parliament, there are no limits or checks to his choices. Mr Harper’s reach extends across the country. Business leaders worry about raising a voice for fear of reprisal. Local media that are “out of line” get punished.

Just this week the Liberal House Leader was told by his Conservative counterpart that an Opposition Day was being shifted to a Friday because an earlier motion had compared the Harper cuts to the Ontario Harris Government’s cuts that led to the Walkerton tragedy. That “went too far” and so wings had to be clipped.

The latest budget bill is yet another example of what is wrong with Parliament. The bill changes 70 laws, guts environmental protection, kills off a multitude of agencies and raises the age of retirement to 67 from 65. Shortly after introducing the bill the government limited debate and this massive, 400-page monstrosity will head to committee for a pro forma discussion. The Senate is debating the subject matter of the bill in a range of committees but no such largesse was permitted in the House of Commons.

The only thing that can change this over time is the election of a government seriously committed to limiting the power of the Prime Minister, that agrees to share power with Parliament and the people. We’re now living in a democracy with dictatorial tendencies. Are Canadians ready to make a change?

- Bob Rae

Bob Rae: Speech to the LPC(Ontario) AGM

Bob Rae delivers a speech at the Annual General Meeting of the Liberal Party of Canada’s Ontario wing.

Mike Crawley: Speech to the Economic Club of Canada

Mike Crawley, National President of the Liberal Party of Canada, delivers a speech to the Economic Club of Canada, entitled “A Bold New Liberal Party – Growing the Movement.”

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