Rights and Democracy: Looks like it’s raining shoes today

Seven board members of Rights and Democracy, including the chairman Aurel Braun, write an op-ed in the National Post asserting that their only concern is transparency and accountability.

A bit of background. Four of the board members have joined the group since October. One, Brad Farquhar, ran against Ralph Goodale for the Conservatives in 2006. Another, Marco Navarro Génie, did his thesis work at the University of Calgary under Tom Flanagan. Here is the bio for a third, Michael Van Pelt, at a sort of think tank he runs. (Aurel Braun’s UofT students apparently think very highly of him.)

These are examples of the country’s duly elected Conservative government appointing board members who will be well regarded by a segment of the Conservative electorate. It’s in the corners like this that Stephen Harper makes change most forcefully, and in those corners there is usually no public scrutiny whatever. Politics is almost always a clash of legitimacies, a confrontation between people and groups who genuinely think, each on their own side, that they’re doing what’s right. And there is a lot more real politics going on right now at Rights and Democracy than there almost ever is in Parliament, even when Parliament is sitting.