Why I will NOT vote for Harper:Part 3 (Abuse of Question Period)

Harper Government's Abuse of Question Period 

Third in a series of mini-blogs on
Canada's federal election to be held 19 Oct. 2015.

DaBa, pen name of a Guest Blogger, wrote the blogs.
My comments follow the  blog. 

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Question Period is supposed to be the heart of Canadian democracy, where the government is held to account by the opposition and forced to explain and justify its policies.

However, rather than provide clarity and transparency, Harper Government responses to questions during Question Period more often result in evasion, reading of prepared talking-points, denigration of the questioner, and/or aggrandisement of the government.

Paul Calandra, Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, best exemplifies the nature of these responses. For example, when asked to provide more information about the scope of Canada's foray into the Middle East

• Calandra launched into a totally irrelevant accusation that an NDP fundraiser had accused Israel of genocide and that New Democrats do not support Israel. 

Similarly, when Calandra was asked how many lawyers from the PMO were involved in setting up the secret deal with Mike Duffy, he responded with an irrelevant non-answer, laughably lauding Harper's government:

Thank goodness Canadians elected a strong, stable, national Conservative majority government, led by the best prime minister in the world, flanked by a minister of finance who has won awards, with the strongest cabinet in Canadian history and Conservative members of Parliament working all over the country to hope for hope, jobs and economic prosperity.

In keeping with his failure to be accountable and transparent, Harper attended only 35% of the daily Question Periods in 2015. To further avoid answering questions, Harper signalled he would not participate in 2015 election leaders' debates organized by a consortium of broadcasters.

This is the same Prime Minister who has

• Refused to meet Canada's provincial and territorial premiers as a group;
• Skipped the Council of the Federation meetings of Canada's provincial and territorial premiers for years;and
• Did not attend the January 2015 meeting although it met just a few blocks from his office. 

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As stated in Canada's Model Parliament for students, daily Question Period in a parliamentary democracy is an opportunity for MPs to obtain information for their constituents and all Canadians, a chance for MPs to hold government accountable for its actions.
The right to seek information and hold the government accountable are two of the fundamental principles of parliamentary democracy. 
That Harper has Paul Calandra as a Parliamentary Secretary says volumes about our PM: 

• One of Calandra's many disgraceful performances in QP, as instructed by PM Harper (After 75 seconds of CBC ads, but it's well worth it)

Harper systematically degrades our Parliament's QP and by extension Canada's democracy. Our PM prevents Canadians from 

• Getting answers to important questions;
• Being aware of key information that affects us all;
• Holding our government accountable for its actions;
• Even those involving sending our sons and daughters into life and death situations.

Harper does not deserve our vote.

As always, comment are not welcome.

Part 4: Harper's Abuse of Access to Information Requests