Tories "dropped ball" on selling prorogation: Duffy, PEI Senator also rules out legalizing marijuana and proportional representation
Posted Mar 5, 2010 By Desmond Devoy
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EMC News - Senator Mike Duffy has admitted that the Harper government "dropped the ball," in explaining the reasons behind its decision to prorogue Parliament. 
Desmond Devoy, Ottawa East EMC
Former Globe and Mail columnist Hugh Winsor, left, engages in a lively "dialogue" with Mike Duffy, the Senator for Prince Edward Island, in Rockcliffe Park last week.
While the House of Commons has resumed sitting this week for the first time since December, with both a Speech from the Throne and a budget scheduled to be delivered, Senator Duffy felt that the Conservative government could have done a better job selling its decision to suspend parliament.
"I think we dropped the ball," said Senator Duffy (Conservative - Prince Edward Island) during a speech on Thursday, February 25, at the Rockcliffe Park Community Hall, 380 Springfield Road. "I think whoever had the communications plan, it didn't work."
For many years, Senator Duffy was a well-known face on CTV News, hosting a live political show from Parliament Hill.
Even though he now works in the Red Chamber, his heart and his head still have a place in the newsroom.
"I still look at things as a journalist and I say 'How will this go over with Canadians?'" he said of prorogation, and other issues, during his speech as part of the Rockcliffe Park Residents' Association's (RPRA) luncheon speakers' series.
Senator Duffy laid the blame for the need for prorogation at the feet of Liberals in the Senate. From his point of view, if the government had wanted to get any of its bills passed, previous to Prime Minister Harper's recent Senate appointments, "you're at the mercy of the Liberals in the Senate."
On one of the stalled bills before the Senate regarding mandatory minimum sentences, he accused the Liberals of trying to "study it to death to frustrate your agenda." One of the components of the bill would have seen to it that "if you have more than five (marijuana) plants in your house, you are growing for the purposes of trafficking." He charged that a later Liberal amendment though saw that number changed from "five plants to 200 plants...this was the kind of mischief they were up to."
Senator Duffy also remarked that some Liberal Senators "don't see Mr. Ignatieff as their leader. Maybe (they see) Bob Rae," in that role.
It was then that the Conservatives decided that they "needed to get their numbers up in the Senate," and that this could only be done by way of an election or prorogation.
"They didn't bother selling it (that way) because it is so arcane," he said.
(Senator Duffy had been introduced by former Globe and Mail columnist Hugh Winsor, who noted that, along with former CBC TV personality Pamela Wallin, Senator Duffy was amongst "the first journalists that were appointed to the Senate by a Prime Minister that did not believe in the Senate.")
Seated in the audience was none other than a former Liberal Senator, Landon Pearson, the daughter-in-law of former Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson. Senator Pearson, appointed in 1994 by Jean Chretien, voiced her concern over the Youth Criminal Justice Act, saying that "I am concerned with the direction that (youth justice) has been taken," on that bill, and the Conservative's get-tough-on-crime approach.
He replied that "I'm personally very concerned with education and literacy," amongst young people, and he commended Quebec's approach to youth criminal justice issues. "What Quebec does is they peel away the layers of the onion," to get to the heart of the matter.
Senator Duffy tipped the audience that this week's budget would be "historic."
"We're going to have to go on a very strict fiscal diet," predicted. "Are Canadians ready for the straight goods? Will this be a springboard for an election?" he asked, rhetorically. "Mister Ignatieff is keen, ready to go."
He also pointed to what may well be one of the ongoing Conservative talking points during the next election: "Will there be another coalition? I think we will be going through very historic times."
Rockcliffe Park residents peppered Senator Duffy with a series of eclectic questions during the Q & A session after his speech.
Former RPRA President Alex Macklin, a lawyer, asked about the possibility of legalizing marijuana.
"Why not legalize it, tax it, put it out there on the market?" he asked, before adding quickly that "I've never consumed it! I drink Scotch, that's about it."
Senator Duffy replied that "whatever you put into your lungs is bad, whatever it is," and that "this government wants to be seen to be on the side of families." Currently, "parents feel beleaguered. If the government were to send some kind of signal that drugs were okay," it may undermine a parent's ability to keep their kids off of drugs. Also, he asked, "are Canadians ready for this?"
Another resident pressed Senator Duffy on replacing Canada's current voting system with some manner of proportional representation.
"I think proportional representation trades the shortcomings of the current system with party lists," replied Senator Duffy. He felt that party lists, like those used in Dutch or Israeli elections, "would draw the same criticism," that the so-called first-past-the-post system attracts currently.
At the end of his time, Senator Duffy thanked the audience for their time and engagement in politics. He joked that he had asked Winsor what the biggest problem facing Canadian politics was, ignorance or apathy.
"I don't know and I don't care!" Duffy quoted Winsor as saying, with a laugh.
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