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The federal Liberals instincts may not be anti-democratic so much as they are dangerously naive.

They take democracy and freedom for granted thinking they can suspend Parliament in the middle of a national crisis and our representative democracy will survive, no problem.

Of course, being Liberals, there is also a conceit behind their move to suspend the House of Commons one month early and keep it shuttered until at least September: They are firmly convinced that, so long as they are in charge and making all the decisions with their elevated social consciences and their superior intellects, nothing can go wrong.

Never mind that Parliament has already sat only a handful of times since March. Meanwhile, the government is blowing through more money that at any time in our history even wartime.

By the way, the Commons managed to keep sitting through the Second World War. It even held one of its most contentious debates ever over whether to conscript (i.e. draft) soldiers during the height of the war.

And our democracy didnt fall apart.

That would seem to indicate the Liberals view the pandemic as a greater crisis than the Second World War. Theyre too busy saving the country to bother answering questions on what theyre doing.

Typically, the Commons rises for about three months in the summer because there is less parliamentary business to do. Members of Parliament may as well be home listening to constituents concerns at barbecues.

But this year it seems, the Trudeau government would rather not have to answer to the opposition for its daily multi-billion-dollar announcements or its handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

For instance, how come we still have so many foreign travellers arriving in Canada? Werent our borders supposed to be shut off? Completely. Except for essential trade.

And how come there is so little enforcement of those travellers self-quarantines?

Why shouldnt the countrys chief public health officer, Theresa Tam, be summoned to defend her actions during the pandemic, even if theyve been perfect? How come there is no one around to ask the PM whether Canada will stick so closely to the World Health Organizations advice if a second wave hits, as it did this time with lousy consequences?

How come we have a labour shortage at the very depths of the worst unemployment since the Great Depression? Could it be the governments emergency CERB payments to Canadians let go during the pandemic are too generous? They are encouraging plenty of workers to take the summer off until the benefits run out.

It may sound cliched but the people truly do have a right to know.

Remember, this is the same Liberal government that earlier in this crisis got caught trying to sneak a clause into a relief bill power that would have permitted it to borrow, tax and spend without limit for nearly two years without parliamentary oversight.

They also implemented the biggest property confiscation in our history (the recent gun ban) by order-in-council rather than parliamentary vote.

The prime minister and his government frequently pay tribute to our freedom and democracy, but apparently their own commitment to those values is limited to when Parliament is convenient for them.

All governments have limited interest in being held to account. Thats why annual parliamentary sitting days have decreased by about 20% over the past 35 years, even as the business of government has rapidly expanded.

I get the Liberals motives for all these manipulation. What I cant, for the life of me, figure out is why Jagmeet Singh and the NDP went along with the Liberal scheme?

I know they got Liberal agreement to push another pay-without-work policy 10 days paid sick leave a year for all workers.

But was that really worth the damage to parliamentary democracy?

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GUNTER: The Liberals are only committed to democracy when it's convenient for them - Toronto Sun