{"id":3320,"date":"2012-05-23T14:50:00","date_gmt":"2012-05-23T18:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=3320"},"modified":"2012-05-29T11:51:43","modified_gmt":"2012-05-29T15:51:43","slug":"how-a-bill-becomes-a-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/?p=3320","title":{"rendered":"How a Bill Becomes a Law"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center><span style=\"color: #333333; font-family: Georgia;\"><em>\u201cAt the end of the day, in my opinion, they\u2019ve  made up their mind and this is how we\u2019re going to vote. One person is not going  to make a difference, one MP is not going to make a difference.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-T8XwPzcCUEo\/T70uy_MmglI\/AAAAAAAADK8\/Sj04kX5hH1g\/s1600\/wilks.jpg\" imageanchor=\"1\" style=\"margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" border=\"0\" height=\"230\" src=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-T8XwPzcCUEo\/T70uy_MmglI\/AAAAAAAADK8\/Sj04kX5hH1g\/s320\/wilks.jpg\" width=\"142\" \/><\/a><\/center><\/p>\n<p>In some respects, I feel bad for David Wilks. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?feature=player_embedded&amp;v=pnGgqEpfkCw\">video<\/a> that will ultimately destroy his political career doesn&#8217;t involve bigoted comments, cocaine, or underage girls &#8211; it&#8217;s a candid discussion with 30 constituents about how Ottawa works. <\/p>\n<p>In it, Wilks voices his displeasure with his party&#8217;s budget, while lamenting that a whiped vote means he has no choice but to support it.<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"252\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pnGgqEpfkCw\" width=\"448\"><\/iframe><\/center><\/p>\n<p>Wilks could easily have blown off this roundtable, recognizing no one attending was ever going to vote Conservative. There are certainly more enjoyable ways to spend a sunny morning in Kootenay-Columbia than walking into a room full of discontents. Instead, Wilks listened and interacted with the people he represents, and he should be applauded for that.<\/p>\n<p>That said, the man has no one to blame for this controversy&nbsp;other than himself. If he truly supports the budget &#8211; <i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.david-wilks.ca\/media_\/riding-news\/statement-in-response-to-a-media-report-on-bill-c-38\">as he now claims to do<\/a><\/i> &#8211; he should have thanked his constituents for their feedback, said he&#8217;d consider what they said, then explained to them <i>why <\/i>he supported the budget.<\/p>\n<p>If he truly opposes the budget &#8211; <i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bclocalnews.com\/news\/152767865.html\">as he said he did yesterday<\/a><\/i> &#8211; he should vote against it. Wilks is wrong when he says one MP can&#8217;t make a difference. John Nunziata and Bill Casey brought more attention to the budgets they opposed than they ever would have by meekly supporting them. Michael Chong&#8217;s opposition to the Quebec Nation resolution may have prevented Harper from going further down that road. I also like to think that the more acts of defiance we get, the more likely we are to see an attitudinal change in Ottawa that gives a greater say to individual MPs. Some may disagree with me, but I think that would be a welcome shift.<\/p>\n<p>And while it should never be the primary reason for opposing your own government,&nbsp;Nunziata, Casey, and Chong all&nbsp;made names for themselves, were heralded for their decisions, and were rewarded by their constituents at the ballot box.<\/p>\n<p>In comparison, all Wilks&#8217; weak-kneed approach ensures is that he will <em>never<\/em> make it to Cabinet, and that he now has a reputation of placing his party ahead of his conscience and his constituents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cAt the end of the day, in my opinion, they\u2019ve made up their mind and this is how we\u2019re going to vote. One person is not going to make a difference, one MP is not going to make a difference.\u201d In some respects, I feel bad for David Wilks. The video that will ultimately destroy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[983],"tags":[1022,984],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3320"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3320"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3377,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3320\/revisions\/3377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.calgarygrit.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}