<p>OTTAWA – It was 16 hours into the House of Commons talkathon that the strangeness of the situation struck Libby Davies.</p> <p>As the Peace Tower clock struck noon Friday, the earnest and stalwart New Democrat looked at the calendar of House business on her desk and noticed it still read Thursday, June 23.</p> <p>”I kind of feel like we’re in that movie Groundhog Day,” she said. “It might be Thursday for quite a while.”</p> <p>For as long as it takes, responded Labour Minister Lisa Raitt. </p> <p>Anger, passion, insults, praise, eloquence, silliness – all were on display Friday as MPs entered the second day of an NDP-initiated filibuster designed to prevent the Harper Conservatives from imposing a settlement in the national post dispute on terms New Democrats believe disadvantage the 48,000 locked-out workers.</p> <p>The government has the power, by virtue of its majority, to pass a law that would force the workers back on the job.</p> <p>But under the rules of the House, the NDP can prevent that vote from occurring as long as they always have enough members in the chamber to tie up the process, and until each New Democrat has spoken.</p> <p>And talk they did throughout the night Thursday, while sleepy Commons staff tried to hold off boredom and Prime Minister Stephen Harper slept on his office couch.</p> <p>They were at it again all day Friday, although Parliament was supposed to be dark in observance of St-Jean-Baptiste Day, Quebec’s national holiday.</p> <p>According to NDP spokesman Karl Belanger, with the party’s 103 members on a six-hour rotation, they could keep talking round-the-clock well into next week.</p> <p>Or singing, for that matter. One rookie NDP member lamented he was in the House when he would rather have been back in his riding celebrating St-Jean-Baptiste and broke into a rendition of Robert Charlebois’ popular Les ailes d’un ange, often sung during the celebrations.</p> <p>”Oh, come on!,” shouted an exasperated Harold Albrecht, the Tory MP from Kitchener, Ont.</p> <p>The endless speechifying was clearly testing the patience of some MPs.</p> <p>Some, particularly on the government side, could at times be seen leafing through newspapers, chatting with each other, or sending messages on their BlackBerrys.</p> <p>But if one paid attention to the debates, it became apparent that what’s at stake is not so much whether the government will get it’s way – it eventually will – but the core beliefs of the politicians Canadians elected on May 2.</p> <p> “It’s popular today to say that parties don’t stand for anything except winning power, but on a small minority of issues there are dividing lines in terms of philosophy and ideological principles,” said Paul Thomas, a professor emeritus of political studies at the University of Manitoba.</p> <p>For the NDP in particular, the fate of unions is one of those issues.</p> <p>On Friday, New Democrats were full of passionate intensity about the rights of the little guy.</p> <p>To them, the government’s action represents the first step in a coming war waged against workers. They see Canada Post’s proposal to pay new workers less than current employees an affront to social justice.</p> <p>Canada Post locked out the workers, and the government took away their ability to bargain, they argued.</p> <p>”I call that dictatorship,” said Jean-Francois Larose, a recently-elected New Democrat from Quebec. “All the working classes that speak out, they are literally gagged.”</p> <p>Added Winnipeg MP Pat Martin, a seasoned warrior for the cause: “(This is) the first shot across the bow of the attack of the neo-conservatives.”</p> <p>Others evoked memories of union battles long past.</p> <p>Dionne Labelle of Riviere-du-Nord recalled that 30 years ago he received a “bump on my head” from police called in to support scabs attempting to cross a picket line.</p> <p>It was all too much for Alberta Tory LaVar Payne.</p> <p>”I’ve been listening … to the speeches, or maybe I should say the pollutants from the socialist Marxist party,” he responded.</p> <p>Conservatives weren’t about to surrender the ground of champions of the little guy easily, however.</p> <p>They too argued they were on the side of the people – seniors who depend on their old age cheques, aboriginals in the North wondering when their medicine will be delivered, small businesses who must lay off workers because their cash flow has been disrupted.</p> <p>”I have 120,000 people in my community that deserve to get their mail,” said Rick Dykstra of St. Catharines.</p> <p>Ottawa grandmother Bette Gordon, who had brought her seven-year-old grandson to the Hill to see the show, said she doesn’t see the filibuster as a waste of time, even if it doesn’t succeed.</p> <p>”It can get boring,” she admitted. “But it’s an historical event. I think they (NDP) are using the filibuster to prove a point.”</p>
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