There are currently three matters before Parliament that are matters of confidence that could lead to the fall of the Harper government and a new election.
One is the budget that is brought down every spring and its passage is always a matter of confidence. The possibility of a government falling over the budget is just the normal consequence of governing with a minority. The second item is a silly motion to force the Senate to pass the government’s criminal legislation by a specific time. This motion makes it patently obvious that the prime minister is inviting an election after having fixing the next election date for October 2009.
But the third motion is neither normal nor silly. Somewhat in accordance with John Manley’s report on Afghanistan, the motion is to extend our current military mission in that country from February 2009 when it is now scheduled to end to the end of 2011. How we treat this mission and the men and women of Canada’s military is central to what we are as a nation. Do we want to put our heads in the sand when it comes to defeating the Taliban or do we really want to banish the enemy in attempt to stabilize Afghanistan to help not only that country but the West as well? Do we want to keep our military as it is, or do we want to turn the men and women in Canada’s forces into boy and girl scouts to simply do humanitarian and reconstruction work? In other words do we want to cut and run before the mission is finished?
The politicians and the media go to great lengths to portray an election as something to be feared; a terrible event that would rival a major terrorist attack, assuming these same media and politicians ever gave any thought to such an attack. For example in Saturday’s National Post, the lead paragraph talked about how Liberal leader Stéphane Dion “warned” that we would have an election this spring if Stephen Harper doesn’t change his position on Afghanistan. Bad, bad Steve. Warned? You “warn” people about inherent dangers such as floods or tornados. You “warn” children to stay away from things that could potentially hurt them or worse. But “warning” the nation that there may be an upcoming election is a little much.
This minority government has been in power for two years; it has already survived longer than the life of the average minority Parliament and a lot longer than some. Contrary to the assertion that people never want an election and will become angry if one is called, election campaigns leading up to the vote do not affect those who are not in any way involved with political parties or politics. The worst effect that an election has on these people is not being able to walk or drive down a street without seeing an array of gaudy election signs. And if people find that the few minutes that it takes to walk around the corner to vote is too onerous, they simply don’t go.
The only time voters become angry is if an election is unnecessarily called too soon after the previous one for the sole purpose of giving the government of the day what it thinks is a clear advantage to extend its mandate. But that is certainly not the case now given the length of time that Harper has been in power and the crossroads that we are at in terms of Canada’s role in Afghanistan.
When it comes to domestic policy, the description of the governing Conservatives as being “Liberal lite” is not out of place. But not so with this government’s foreign policy. From the United States to the United Nations to Israel to Afghanistan, the Harper government is light years away from the Liberals’ approach where fighting is never necessary and Canada should simply stay in Afghanistan to build roads and schools without having to worry about the Taliban destroying whatever is built. These are serious policy differences between the government and the opposition parties and it is time that Canadians be given an opportunity to vote for which policy they want to see Canada implement.
We owe it to the men and women of the Canadian Forces who are putting their lives on the line to know the exact purpose of the mission. We owe it to those who are thinking of entering the military to know if the country expects them to be real soldiers or social workers and road builders.
We have an important issue that needs to be resolved. It’s time to have an election. And if one is called, we can’t say that we were not “warned”.
