General

A wasted year?

Conservatives passed virtually no new legislation in 2010

If legislative accomplishments are anything to go by, 2010 hasn’t been a banner year for the Conservatives. According to an analysis done by Le Devoir, the Harper government spent the better part of the past year re-doing the work it scrapped when it prorogued Parliament last winter, with little in the way of results to show for their efforts. Of the 61 pieces of legislation the Conservatives introduced in the House over the last 12 months, 33 were recycled from the previous session of Parliament; and as of right now, 18 of those 33 bills are either at the same stage or further away from being made law than they were before prorogation. In fact, only three of the recycled bills have received royal assent. Among those legislative items that are further behind than they were at this time last year are supposed Conservative priorities, like a bill that would stiffen sentences for drug offences and a proposal to grant police new investigative powers. Counting the three bills that are set to be granted royal assent Wednesday afternoon, the Conservatives will have passed a meagre 11 bills through Parliament over the past 12 months, leading Le Devoir to conclude that “2010 was a total waste on the legislative front.”

Le Devoir

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