The constantly evolving nature of democracy
Stephen Harper, explaining Bev Oda’s situation. “Mr. Speaker, once again, the reality is that the minister took a decision that was contrary to the recommendations of her officials. In a democracy, the elected ministers are the ones who make decisions. That is what democracy means.”
Tom Lukiwski, explaining how the government failed to supply various documents requested by Parliament. “The information we had originally submitted to Parliament was on the advice of many of those within the public service who told us that this information should be able to satisfy the request … I suspect this is a situation where the public servants who were responsible for gathering the information were the ones who advised the ministers that the information that they’d provided was adequate and satisfactory.”