More Public Discussion on the 40th Parliament

In the form of David Bilinsky, I start this post with a lyric:

♬ power to the people, power to the people, right on ♬
John Lennon

As Connie posted this week our current parliamentary situation is facilitating a raft of public discussion.

Coming up in Edmonton on January 22, and presented by the Centre for Constitutional Studies, the Legal Resource Centre, the Department of Political Science, and the Department of History & Classics we have this:

Canada’s 40th Parliament in Crisis: What Happened, What’s Next?

Join faculty from the University of Alberta in a panel discussion addressing the recent political and constitutional turmoil in the House of Commons, as we look toward the next session of Parliament set to begin on January 26, 2009.

Moderator: Paula Simons, the Edmonton Journal.

Panelists:

Steve Patten, Department of Political Science, will set the political stage for the panel by discussing the “Prime Minister Harper in a Minority Parliament.”

Eric Adams, Faculty of Law, will clarify the constitutional rules and principles at stake in evaluating the actions of “Prime Minister Harper and the Governor General.”

Frédéric Boily, Campus Saint-Jean, will discuss “The view from Québec.”

James Muir, Department of History and Classics & Faculty of Law, will provide a reminder of “Coalition Government in Canada’s Political Tradition.”

Ken Munro, Department of History and Classics, will examine “The Past and Future of the Crown in Canada.”

Thursday, January 22, 2009
12:00 – 1:30 p.m.
Business Building, Room 4-06
University of Alberta

The session is free and open to the public.

Comments

  1. Shaunna:

    It sounds like the Center for Constitutional Studies should also be singing another Lennon/McCartney lyric:

    ♫ Come together right now over me ♫

    I would applaud the dialogue over the future of parliament and the parliamentary system, particularly if it can highlight ways for parliament to work better to help solve our economic woes. In fact, I am *sure* that Lennon/McCartney had the rule of law firmly in their minds when they wrote:

    ♫ One thing I can tell you is you got to be free ♫

  2. The Legal Resource Centre has just posted the podcasts of the presentations from yesterday’s session. It was very informative and we had a terrific turnout (over 100 people showed up.)

    You can listen to the podcasts here: http://www.legalresourcecentre.ca/podcast-special.html (
    We will post the Q & A session as well but it needs a bit more work to clean it up – so we won’t get to it until next week.)