The environment before us

A budget leak and yet more lack of evidence-based policy from our Conservative government.

I'd say Keith Martin got out when the going was good. But then, as Andrew Potter points out at Macleans.ca, Canadian politics is about as bad as you would expect it to be:

Here is Keith Martin on committees: “Many committees are ground down by partisanship. The committees have just become another theatre for political warfare, an extension in fact of the House.”

I see this as the consequence of two things. First, deliberate changes have been made to strengthen the power of parliamentary committees, as demanded by MPs. When you give a body made up of political partisans more power, what the heck do you expect will happen? Second, the instability and uncertainty of minority government means that every issue is politicized in a way it need not be when the government has a majority and knows it will be in power for four or five years. The math isn’t difficult: Stronger committees + minority government = increased partisanship.

Meanwhile, Lorne Gunter.