Predictable opposition

Re: Prorogation to kill Senate reform bill, Aug. 20. The announcement on Monday that Parliament will be prorogued until October produced the predictable script-like responses from the opposition. The opposition parties were united in claiming that Prime Minister Stephen Harper was seeking to avoid Question Period and accountability on the Senate expense scandal.

Yet everyone, which includes the opposition and the media, knew as far back as May that proroguing of Parliament would be introduced in the fall. The opposition, after condemning the use of this prime ministerial power, acknowledged that this is the normal thing to occur in the middle of a four-year term. At which point they fall back on the idea that the PM is seeking to avoid questioning on the Senate expense scandal.

However, since this scandal has been occupying the media for months now and has yet to be concluded, it’s hard to buy into the opposition’s claim that not resuming Parliament in September will mean the end of questioning on this matter. It would be reasonable to assume that the opposition will be talking about the Senate well into 2014.

The opposition has become so predictable in its responses to government actions that anyone who follows politics at all knows exactly what is going to be said before hand. This can’t be a good thing.

JEFF SPOONER, Kinburn