A man’s got to know his limitations
Posted on December 5th, 2008
by Sean Scallon |
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A Tory Prime Minister of Canada should well know that his parameters for conservative policies are pretty limited. Thus, when Prime Minister Stephen Harper proposed that Canadian political parties should not receive subsides from the federal government and that civil servants be denied the right to strike, he managed to accomplish what many thought was impossible, unite the left in a broad coalition that may very well take down his minority government. Only the fact he was able to get Canadian Governor-General Michelle Jean to shutdown parliament or “prorogue,” it as it’s known in Ottawa, stayed his execution.
The tri-party coalition of the Liberals, New Democrats and the Bloc Quebcois may be SOP in countries like Israel and Italy, but its usually unheard of Anglo parliamentary countries let alone two parties in the “first past the post” system. Not only that, the parties are some of the most unlikeliest partners one could dream of: The sovereigntist Bloc actually supporting a coalition with their mortal enemies, the ultra-centralist Liberals? And yet because this is politics, this strange bedfellow grouping takes place because of common interests and in this case, a common desire to show relevancy.
In my last post on Canadian politics on TAC, I stated that the Bloc has basically paralyzed the political scene because they can take 50 seats in Parliament right off the table from other parties and make majority governments impossible to obtain (although the Tories are only five seats away from a majority). They want to show their relevancy to Quebec voters by displaying their ability to support or take down any government who’s interests are deemed hostile to Quebec’s. Likewise, the NDP, with its aging, industrial union and prairie farmer base squeezed as it is between the rising Greens and establishment Liberals, wants to show it can operate as a junior partner inside a government and thus went along with the coalition idea. In fact it’s eager to do so.
Of course the only problem is that Liberal leader Stephan Dion, the designated PM of this three-headed hydra, led the Liberals to one of their worst showings in a general election last October in a century. Only 28 percent of Canadians thought well enough of Dion to vote for him and yet he may very well become the next PM if the coalition holds, sort of like John McCain winning the White House despite his fitful campaign (perhaps due to a less than truthful Obama birth certificate? Who knows, the electoral vote still has to take place). Oh yes, there’s a Liberal leadership convention in May and Dion has already announced his stepping down then. So, if the coalition holds up, Canada could very well have three prime ministers in one single year in the space of five months!
Obviously there’s a certain amount of outrage amongst Canadians at such parliamentary shenanigans, certainly unprecedented in Canadian history but Harper does deserve some of the blame for this. Despite reminding us all that former PM Joe Clark’s minority government fell in 1979 because he “governed like he had a majority,” Harper tired to do the very same thing. And any criticism of the LP and NDP for working the Bloc is hollow too because Harper did exactly that (in fact was encouraged to do so by yours truly) to form his first minority government in 2006.
The end result of all this maneuvering is that Harper may very well give into Liberal demands for an expensive stimulus package for the Canadian economy (Indeed the Big 3 may very well get more money from Ottawa than Washington) just to avoid a no-confidence vote. It also shows once again, sadly, that once you give a conservative of any degree any kind of power, that person can turn into a centralist overnight. That the once Albertan separatist PM can now pose as a defender of Canadian unity is pretty sickening considering the promise his government once held to have Alberta and Quebec working together to hold back the Ontario centralists. Now, in order to stay in power, he’s become one of them.
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I agree with a great deal of what you have to say and I believe that Harper is largely responsible for bringing this mess upon himself. After all, politicians rarely have any other skills and attacking their jobs is one certain way to gather strange bedfellows together. The fact that Harper either didn’t recognize this or was too foolhardy to put this proposal in a stimulus bill which would have left-footed the Liberals and NDP is a rather obvious indication that he deserves neither his reputation as a strategic magus nor his position as leader of the Conservative Party.
You should note that all secessionists (I refuse to call the Froggies by their chosen name) are not created equal. The BQ and PQ are nationalists and socialists (dare we call them national socialists?). They’re a nasty group, and Harper is right to point this out to Canadians now, and was wrong to work with them before. It’s one thing to deal with the devil in international relations, but it’s another to sleep with him at home.
Hi,
I am not sure that I ageree entirely with your the statement in your last paragraph.Harper has kept a fairly steady hand on the wheel in the governance of this country. He has shown restraint in terms of fiscal responsibility in response to the current world economic crisis. I think that he majority of Canadians understood that he was waiting to gage the situation south of the border before blindly handing over billions of the tax payer’s money to wasteful schemes engineered by the corrupt Liberal , NDP, and Separatist Bloc parties. These parties have a well-documented history of squandering our hard-earned dollars for the perpetuation of their narrow, self-serving agendas.His wait and see attitute has not pleased the unholy alliance which has formed against him to initiate the most naked political banana republic-style power-grab in the history of this nation. I am relived, as are many other Canadians, that Harper was allowed to prorogue parliament for the time being to avert this unabashedly anti-democratic attempt to over-thow a recently re-elected prime-minister who won a larger per centage of the popular vote than any of them. The idea of these back-dealing rogues cutting a deal with a separatist party from Quebec to oust the legitimate leader is repugnant to say the least–even if the Conservative Party did not earn a clear majority as they had hoped for..If these “sore-loosers” do not back down in Januray, then the Governor General should call an election which could spell the end of this farce and the ultimate demise of those who attempted to sneak in through the back-door and undermine our current democratic process. Technically, it may have been considered legal but most Canadians are well-aware of the amoral motives of all three parties to cease what they could not achieve through the popular vote. Stephane Dion, the current liberal leader, was so badly mauled in the recent election and is slated to be replaced in May if he is not gotten rid of sooner if it looks like the Governor General will call another election pending a non-confidence vote in parliament. No one knows what will happen at this juncture–the frayed seams of the coalition appear to already be unravelling but then again, you have leftist former Ontario premier Bob Rae touring the country naively believing that he can turn the tide. I honestly do believe that the majority of Canadians have seen through this thin veil of corruption and recognized a hidden agenda in the guise of national interest. The Canadian people will never accept the idea of the Bloc Quebecois, a Separatist political party holding the balance of power in this country, no matter which way you cut the deal. It remains to be seen how soon they will be willing to forgive or at least forget this hi-jacking of the Canadian public at a time when we are faced with so many crucial decisions in light of the current economic malaise.
Perhpas, Harper could have stated unequivocally that he would have his decidion with regard to an economic stimulus package in the New Year. As any wise,prudent man, (Afterall did major in economics)he was waiting to see what would happen south of the border and what reverberations would be felt up here in Canada. Our financial institutions, have lost millions but not billions in tainted securities, the western real-estate market is only in the first-phase of the economic slow-down as is most of the country with the exception of the industrial manufacturing base in Ontario and Quebec. But now, that is begging to change. Clouds are looming upon the horizon and we shall see which direction Prime Minister Harper and the “centralist” Conservative Party will take in the New Year–if he is given the chance to govern.