Motion 408: keeping the government accountable

In response to my email to Mr. Harper, I received this response from his office:

Dear Ms. Maloney:

On behalf of the Prime Minister, thank you for your correspondence of March 21 regarding Member of Parliament Mark Warawa's Private Members Motion, M-408. Please be assured that your concerns have been noted. We appreciate your input.

We understand your deeply held views on this subject. However, the decision to deem motion M-408 non-votable was made by two all-party committees.

Our Government ran and was elected on a pledge not to raise this issue. The Prime Minister has been very clear, as he was during the last election, that we have no plan to reopen this debate.

Once again, thank you for taking the time to write.

Sincerely,

Here is my reply:

Thank you for your email.

You state that: "the decision to deem motion M-408 non-votable was made by two all-party committees."

If I am not mistaken, two members on that committee were Conservatives, were they not? Why then didn't they uphold the principles of democracy, instead of following the sheep-like lead of the other parties? It shouldn't really matter to the Conservatives what the other parties did; I hold the Conservatives to a much higher standard than the other parties, yet the Government has failed us with this breach of Parliamentary procedure.

You then say that: "Our Government ran and was elected on a pledge not to raise this issue. The Prime Minister has been very clear, as he was during the last election, that we have no plan to reopen this debate."

With all due respect, what does this have to do with the subject at hand? Mr. Warawa's motion had absolutely nothing to do with Mr. Harper's desire to not reopen the abortion debate, and everything to do with Private Member's Business. It has nothing to do with Government business at all, and to imply otherwise is disingenuous at best.

Please ask the Prime Minister to honour our Canadian democratic principles, and to allow Mr. Warawa's Motion to proceed in a manner that upholds the integrity Canadians expect from their Government.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Patricia Maloney