The federal Liberals are certainly not looking forward to this evening's Speech from the Throne. Certainty is rare in politics; why we haven't seen it in well over a week when it became apparent that John Tory was not going to be the next premier of Ontario. But it is pretty well assured that the Liberals are not looking forward to the resumption of Parliament that begins with Governor General Michaelle Jean delivering the Throne Speech.
The NDP and the Bloc have already strongly hinted that they will vote against the government on the contents in the Throne Speech which is a matter of confidence. If they follow through, the Harper government will fall unless the Liberals either vote in favour or take the cowards way out and abstain by staying away from the House while the vote is taken. No matter what they do, the Liberals under the weak leadership of Stephane Dion find themselves in a pickle. If they vote against the speech they will be forced into an election at a time when Dion can't seem to do anything right and, for the first time in his mandate, Harper is headed into majority government territory.
Should the Liberals vote in favour of the Throne Speech or otherwise allow it to pass, they will be backtracking, to put it mildly, on two of their major planks. Dion has been adamant that the Conservative government give a definite date when combat troops will be removed from Afghanistan. And Dion, like the good one-worlder that he is, sees adherence to the Kyoto accords and meeting its targets as the only solution in protecting the environment. Neither adherence to Kyoto targets or a definite date for cutting and running from the Taliban is likely going to be found in the Speech from the Throne. No matter which way you look at it, the Liberal Party a.k.a. the Natural Governing Party is in deep doo-doo.
So the Liberals did what they always do when they panic at the thought of losing or not gaining power that they feel is their due--they played the anti-American card. During the weekend they trotted out House Leader Ralph Goodale who accused Harper and the Conservatives of plotting to make Canada "a Republican clone by stealth". That kind of statement would be fine coming from a political lightweight like Stephane Dion but it is beneath someone of the stature of Ralph Goodale. The comparisons between Harper and those evil Republicans are so stale that they are almost laughable. Canadians have had over a year and a half to discover that Scary Stephen is not quite the evil, George W. Bush wannabe that he has been betrayed by the Liberals. Canadians are well aware that Harper is no Republican. Republicans aren't even Republicans any more. This tactic might get a few votes in rural Quebec or in a trendy enclave of socialist Toronto but Canadians are not going to buy the "we're becoming like 'them'" line again.
Goodale also went on to criticize the government's decision to deliver the Speech from the Throne at 7 pm eastern time rather than the customary 4 pm. Harper's rationale was that more Canadians will be able to watch the speech live in the evening than would in the afternoon. Goodale accused the government of purposely putting it later to cut down on the time that other parties have to respond to the Throne Speech and making it so that the networks will not be able to report (criticize) the speech on their prime time newscasts. While there is some merit to the latter point, this is the 21st century. We are in an age of the Internet and 24-hour cable news networks; very few people are dependent upon the 6 o'clock news as they were even 10 years ago. Of course Ralph went further and accused Harper of mimicking the Americans who hold the State of the Union address and other important presentations during the evening, usually later than 7 pm. The constant references to Americans and Republicans illustrate the desperate situation that the once mighty Liberals now find themselves in.
Recently, Stephen Harper told the opposition parties to fish or cut bait, a remark that was obviously aimed at the Liberals. And poor Steffi doesn't want to do either. All the Liberals can do at this point is what they do best--throw Harper in with Carolyn Parrish's evil bastards to the south. It didn't work in January 2006 and it won't work now.
