The tom-toms of the election call sound more like drumbeats of division than clarion calls to purpose. Prime Minister Harper was right in legislating a fixed election date for this country. He should stick to it.
His frustration with a recalcitrant opposition is understandable. An opposition that has sabre-rattled with weekly regularity yet supported the government on some forty confidence votes. Sadly, the tradition of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition proposing more than merely opposing is lacking in Canada. Frankly, Mr. Harper came closer to that goal when he was in opposition than any recent leader.
That is all the more reason why the civility that has been a hallmark of his politics should be maintained today. Harper has now led the longest minority government in this nation’s history. Whether or not you agree with all of his legislative agenda, he cannot credibly argue that he has not succeeded.
The Conservative government was elected with a plan to move forward on five areas of legislation. They have got most of their agenda through on four of these. He may be right that Parliament is dysfunctional. But that’s politics. Reform Parliament by all means, but don’t make the people pay.
The only irritant of any consequence that has occurred during the summer recess was the House Ethics Committee hearings into Tory finances in the last campaign. Mostly technical issues they involve some one million dollars. A new election would cost hundreds of millions.
More than the cost, the sight of this Dominion being plunged into a fourth election in eight years reeks of banana republic imagry. If there was some desire to tackle compelling issues it would be understandable. Though urgent matters of economic disparity and social justice exist, there does not seem to be the political will by any party to address them. An election would just be another distraction of bread and circuses.
We have criticized the opposition, Liberal and NDP both, for ignoring the critical issues of the health care crisis, of one-third of our urban households living in poverty and of galloping nanny-statism destroying our privacy rights. Instead of addressing these, we get the “Green shift” with a 30/50 anti-poverty plan built into it. The reality is there is no environmental crisis to the degree the eco-theocrats would have us believe and eco-theocratic environmental proposals just don’t work and the politicians know it. They don’t work because they don’t address the fundamental issue of the internal combustion engine. Instead of a carbon tax, Mr. Dion would serve the public better if he proposed credits making hybrid cars affordable at the $20,000 level. That would be a real “green shift”. But that involves taking on vested interests.
Politicians are loath to do that. And lest anyone think that the tax will be “revenue neutral” just remember the Tory promises characterizing the GST in the same way. No tax is ever “neutral”. But its easier for politicians to “go green” than to tackle the tough political and distributive problems we still face in this land of great wealth that has produced only a thin veneer of affluence.
The Conservative government does not provide us with much justification for an election either. Mr. Harper has given Canada a bold and principled position in foreign affairs and our standing in the world. He has rightly engaged us in peoples struggles for freedom and redemptive change. He has begun, some would say too slowly, to roll back government encroachment in our lives and started to reduce the groaning federal bureaucracy. He has also begun to lower our unconscionably high levels of taxation which hurt the working man and woman more than any other strata of society.
Yet the reasons offered for an early election have to do with the desire to pass certain pieces of criminal and social legislation. These pieces of legislation are not only not worthy of an election, they are not worthy of Stephen Harper the man. Bills like C-10 on limiting film financing based on sexual content and C-484 that would re-open the debate on fetal rights are not necessary. The former reeks of censorship. The latter,of the imposition of state morality on what should be a private matter. The Tories “tough on crime” bills that include mandatory minimums are totally disconnected from reality. Violent crime in Canada has been going down consistently. The attempt to make Canadians believe there is some king of violent crime epidemic is wrong. Sadly, if we go to an election the Tory package will be pandering to the recalcitrant right and the Liberals to the statocratic left. Neither will serve the greater good.
The role of a political party is greater than just acquiring and keeping power. If elements in the Liberal Party want a quick election in order to see Mr. Dion defeated and send the party into another leadership convention, and elements in the Conservative party are afraid of the effects of Obama’s campaign on trends in Canada, those considerations have nothing to do with the fiduciary responsibility that both government and opposition owe to the Canadian people.
The election date law that Mr. Harper succeeded in passing is historic. Perhaps the only element missing was that governments must govern for the full term whether they are majority or minority. Now that’s something to look forward to.
