Canada's Pro-Democracy Movement

Good summation of the Cons' latest attacks on 'democracy' over the last few months.

That they are getting away with it is, as a protester in the vid states, pretty much our own fault. Notable how little media attention was paid to Harper's interview with Business News Network two weeks ago in which he characterized Parliament as an impediment to business.

South of the "longest undefended border in the world", Chris Hedges uses political philosopher Sheldon Wolin's term “inverted totalitarianism” to describe how Democracy in America Is a Useful Fiction :

"The fiction of democracy remains useful, not only for corporations, but for our bankrupt liberal class. If the fiction is seriously challenged, liberals will be forced to consider actual resistance, which will be neither pleasant nor easy. As long as a democratic facade exists, liberals can engage in an empty moral posturing that requires little sacrifice or commitment. They can be the self-appointed scolds of the Democratic Party, acting as if they are part of the debate and feel vindicated by their cries of protest."

Up here, our primary concern still seems to be keeping that border open for business, even at the risk of losing a toehold on our own struggles towards democracy.

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Prorogue This! Vancouver rally photos

(click photos to enlarge)

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Canwest : Thousands turn out for Vancouver rally to protest PM Harper's decision to prorogue Parliament.

"Thousands", says Canwest. 25,000 nation-wide.

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And look at all those handmade signs!

Very upbeat mood throughout, passing cars honking their support, people cheering us on out of office windows. Felt great to be out on the street with Canadians who give a damn.

Notable that of the speeches given at Victory Square, the loudest and most sustained applause greeted Fair Vote Canada Shoni Field's call for electoral reform

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Many thanks to University of Alberta grad student Christopher White who started the whole thing rolling with just a page on facebook, now numbering over 213,000.

And to all those talking heads who assured us nightly on the evening news that Canadians could care less that a single MP who happens to be the PM dismissed parliament via a phone call to the GG - you helped more than you know.

All in all a great day for democracy in Canada.

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Lolsy Update : Naturally some Con supporters are now requiring proof that the rallies along with their extensive media coverage are not just some kind of elaborate leftie hoax.

Steve must be so proud.

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"No Prorogue!" Rally for Canada today

As I type this, a Canadian named Sarah is marching in a one-woman No Prorogue protest in Brunei, the day's first. Soon there will be others in Trafalger Square and The Hague, with New York, Dallas Texas, and San Francisco joining in later on.

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63 rallies across Canada and their fb pages listed here

The Vancouver meet up is on Georgia St. with a march to Victory Square.

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Boots on the streets, people, boots on the streets.

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Antonia : Canadians can win at numbers game - 80 per cent of success is showing up.

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Keeping score on Facebook

When Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament started up on Facebook last week, supporters of last year's Canadians Against a Liberal/NDP Coalition Gov't were all very dissy about it : We got 127,000 members in less than a week - crowed BloggingTory Stephen Taylor - the largest Canadian FB group evah!

Of course now that CAPP membership has reached 140,000 150,000, they've gone all 'well fuck facebook then', and the National Post is plumping for the 163 Canadians Who Don't Care if Harper is Proroguing Parliament Give a Rat's Ass About It
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As CC points out, the prorogue FB support group are of course the real competition to CAPP and not the anti-coalition group, but Susan Delacourt points out an important difference between anti-prorogue group and the anti-coalition group for us anyway (h/t Dammit Janet) :

"This new Facebook group is counting on people to educate themselves about parliamentary tradition, practice and principle. The old Facebook group was organized around the notion of 'never mind parliamentary rules about majority/minority and confidence, this thing is wrong.'

In other words, you have to understand basic rules of Parliament to understand why this prorogation is unusual; you had to ignore parliamentary rules to argue the coalition was wrong."

And right there Susan nails the basic difference between progressives and the ReformaTories.
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