Graham Steele, the New Democrat MLA for Halifax Fairview, is one of the few Canadian politicians to have their own blog. (Staff-written embarassments like Paul Martin’s late — in every sense of the word — unlamented entry into the field need not apply.)
It’s early going, but already he seems to have found a distinctive writing voice. And as a bit of a procedure geek manqu?©, I’m always happy to see this sort of stuff:
For the Opposition parties, introducing a bill is a way of staking out policy ground – but most Opposition bills don’t pass. Something that most people don’t realize is that, even in a minority government, no bill can pass without the support of the government. That’s because the Rules of our Legislature dictate that only the government can call a vote on a bill. So if the government doesn’t support a bill, it simply doesn’t call it for a vote. The real power of the Opposition, in a minority government, is to amend or defeat a government bill. Under a majority government, the only power the Opposition has is to delay a bill, but every bill will eventually pass if the government has a majority.
On that note, as usual, while we aren’t going dark here at ODTAA, we are slowing down during the provincial election. First, I’m working on the thing as a big fat partisan New Democrat, and wouldn’t want anything I write to reflect on the campaign. (For the record, ODTAA doesn’t speak for the NDP; opinions expressed on these pages are those of the author alone and even then, he barely understands them himself.) And second, there won’t be a whole lot of time. When I do post, it’ll likely be pictures of my cat. (Note to self: acquire a cat.)
