-Samy Appadurai
The marriage of convenience between the opposition parties was broken even before the honeymoon started and the NDP and Bloc Québécois are now in tears. Do not worry babies. Mr. Jack Layton was having a sweet dream during the election campaign of occupying the seat of Prime Minster and replacing Mr. Harper.
The election results woke him up with a start and the dream quickly disappeared. His second dream was to defeat the Harper government by any means and become a member of the cabinet in the expected coalition government. This dream has vanished and it is hoped that he will snap into reality and come down to earth. He should have learned that the current Liberal party is not headed by Mr. Paul Martin or Stephan Dion. This selfish and revengeful attitude was revealed well before the budget was presented to parliament. He said that he would certainly vote against the budget and defeat the Harper government. It appears that he does not care about the national interest and cares more about the party’s interest at the expense of the country and the tax payers.
How dare a long time city councilor and leader of a left wing political party backed by union workers in the middle of a global recession, switch over the government for the sole reason of getting rid of Mr. Harper’s government and ignoring the consequences! Furthermore, it is surprising to me that without even having the slightest idea or clue about the contents of the budget firmly made the decision not to support it.
This clearly shows that the true motive was something other than the best interests of the nation. At least he should have given some weight on the visit of Mr. Barack Obama President of the United States; America being the biggest importer of our exports. What will the nature of his visit be? Will it be a formal visit and limited to having some superficial discussions with the Prime Minster and then return back to the States? Will they mainly discuss their interests in Afghanistan or just discuss climate change and global warming? Maybe they will discuss pressing Canadian issues, such as Canada’s sovereignty in the north and The North American Free Trade Agreement and the relaxing of the restrictions on boarder crossings. Whatever the case may be, his visit at this time of change in politics and economic recession, is much more important for us than the States.
The Bloc was not an inclusive partner of the coalition but a conditional supporter in planning to defeat the Harper government and I do not believe that their extension of support was based on the best interest of the nation. This party has a clear mandate of serving the best interests of Quebec and when it comes to priorities, Quebec sovereignty reigns supreme. If this is challenged by the Canadian national interest, certainly the line would be drawn on their side. Every voter knows that the sudden ‘U’ turn was made by these parties not on economic stimulation as they like to portray, but something related to the parties interests. I am sure in the long run Canadians will forgive but not forget the way these parties acted at this critical moment.
The Liberals did not care much about the coalition but recognized the current situation and acted wisely. They know very well that in the middle of a deep recession it is not easy to handle it with a party that has a brand new leader though he has extensive academic skills. They would not be able to handle this situation against an experienced and balanced leader and the failure of which would lead the party from bad to worse in the next election. They might have allowed the Harper government to sail on the rough part of the ocean and when the economy reached the recovery stage, push for an election by finding some excuse and paint the picture that if they had been in power they would have handled it wonderfully, there would have been no job losses and no deficit and they would try to gain more voters. Their calculation in reading the heart beat of the voters is wrong because voters know very well the capabilities of handling critical situations from having a minority government in the past. Voters also know that most of the election promises were fulfilled in a short period of time by the Conservative government.
The second reason is that whatever is said and done, they are to be aware that voters in the last election had given a clear mandate for Harper’s party to govern, not permission for the opposition parties to form an alliance and a coalition government. If they try to defeat the government again, they will have to face very serious consequences in the next election whenever it is going to be held. The bottom line is not to antagonize the voters and in the last election, the Liberals performed very badly and the process of getting back their reputation is not that easy and every move has to be well planed and wisely calculated.
Mr. Ignatieff has to do a lot of homework to clean up the mess and bring party members from internal camps to a unified front. That could be done starting at the party convention that is scheduled for early May of this year when he will be elected as the full fledged leader of the party. He would then be able to build a solid foundation to rebuild the party and repair the damage. But until then, it is better to cooperate with the government. Mr. Stephan Dion did not want to bring down the last government for many reasons; the main reason was that he wanted some time to rebuild his party and quite cleverly at the time of voting, abstained. This assured the survival of the Harper government and by doing that, the credit of those bills would not directly go to Harper’s government.
Last, if not least the Liberals might have the national interest at heart in giving probation and support to the government and I do not think this was the only reason for supporting the budget. The conditional support to the budget by placing the government “on probation” is a very diplomatic and political move. As the Liberals are holding the remote control of this government in their hand, whenever they are not pleased with the move they presume that they will be able to gain the support of the rest of the opposition parties and bring down the government. They have taken it for granted that they have been given the mandate by the voters to be the boss of the government and give probation. At this junction the rest of the opposition parties have no hope of forming a government by themselves in the near future. They should consider their agenda and act accordingly and not always be so adamant in bringing Harper’s government down at any cost.
I believe that some of the Liberals have foreseen that for a stronger and better future of their party, it would be advisable to keep a distance from the NDP and Bloc Québécois. This will result in having more votes in the future so that Liberals will have a better chance in defeating the Conservatives. The left wing Liberal supporters at times cross over to the NDP and cast their votes and wise reverse and in the province of Quebec, the Liberals have been fighting against the Bloc in getting non hard line sovereignty votes. If it is a favorable time for the Liberals they would not mind collaborating with the rest of the opposition to defeat this government. Bringing down Harper’s government should not be a hindrance in building up the Liberals in the future. Voters have not forgotten the election promise of not having a coalition government with the NDP by the Liberals.
The Finance Minister has put great effort and consideration and might have accommodated the suggestions given by various government organs, business leaders and others before formulating this budget. It is a budget that has the voice of the people from coast to coast from workers to entrepreneurs, and it is a budget of the people for the people and anyone who opposes this budget is insulting the intelligence of the masses. The direction and true core of the budget leans towards economic stimulation and this has garnered much support from the lower and middle class income earners. The NDP would have supported it if they considered their fundamental goals as more important than political interest. The opposition parties mainly complain whenever a budget of the Conservatives is proposed. They believe that a Conservative budget encourages the entrepreneurs and favors them rather than the common man. But in this budget, this sentiment is far from the truth.
Having a deficit budget right now is inevitable; the global recession has forced almost all industrialized countries to have deficits. There is no magic formula that can keep us away from this and it may have to continue into next year and the following year. How quickly we overcome the recession and reach the recovery stage depends on the consumers, producers, and the global economic situation and government policies. The Finance Minister mentioned that the current situation is somewhat unpredictable and we have to act accordingly. Although interest was reduced to a very low rate the investors and people have to come out and borrow more money; but a good number of them do not have the confidence and are not prepared to face the risk. The common man is very worried about the stability and security of his job and hesitates to spend more money. Unless people spend money and purchase goods and services from service providers, the production will decrease and then the lay offs of workers will continue. It is a chain reaction and a full stop has to be made and it would be better at the consumers end. The stimulation package is not only aimed at the production side but to the consumers as well. The producers and the consumers are both sides of the same coin. Consumer confidence is the backbone of any economy and it cannot be underestimated and after all the main objective of any production is to reach the consumer. Therefore, economic recovery is partially in the hands of every one of us.
The former Conservative government made a very remarkable contribution in paying back the debt of over thirty billion in under three years and today’s global economic situation forced them to borrow money. I am very confident that when the economy gets back into shape they will repay the loan and leave the future generations free to a certain extent, from paying back our loans
According to the chief officer of the Central Bank the nature of this recession is different from the ones that we experienced in the1980’s and 1990’s. The interest rates of today are low compared to those previous recessions and it will stimulate the home buyers and the investors to borrow more money. Our economy is much stronger than it was when we had the other recessions. In the last two recessions most of the Canadian provinces were very badly affected, but currently oil rich Alberta and some of the other provinces have not felt the gravity of the recession as of yet. The provinces of Ontario and Quebec that depend on a sizeable income from certain manufacturing industries are experiencing a greater adverse effect of the recession.
When the economy is in recession, naturally the amount of revenue for the government will be low and social expenses such employment insurance and social assistance will rise. I have been in one of the Toronto Social Services offices very recently with someone and I could see many recently unemployed people who were there to apply for social assistance after exhausting their employment insurance benefits.
Some are bit panicky about the current recession and they predict that it may go into a deeper state and reach a stage of depression like in 1929-1934. They say that this recession is more severe than the pre- depression of the 1930’s. This is a pessimistic approach and I do not think that we are in that kind of situation. We must have the confidence that among the G8 nations, the Canadian economy is stronger and the effect of the cyclone will not produce such a disaster.
The right Honorable Prime Minister had foreseen the difficulties in implementing the policies of the government effectively and efficiently without having a majority government and this was the main reason for calling the last election. But somehow the decision of the voters allowed for another minority government and we all respect the verdict of the voters. A recent poll indicates that 51% of Canadians did not want the budget to be defeated and thus bring down the government and this is the view of the majority of Canadians.
This budget is only one item that we are looking at and in the future the government should not act in terms of implementing election promises that voters have been expecting and strive to resolve the new problems that may occur in these hard times. We have to have an alternative plan if Mr. Obama dismantles or does not respect and implement the policies of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Concerns over the aging baby boomers, implementation of immigration policies, improving the relationship between the federal government and the provinces and elimination of unemployment need to be discussed and resolved if the nation is to have any peace of mind at all.
The main thing that the opposition parties have to do right now is to put their own differences and agendas aside and put Canada first. They must work as a team and portray Canada as a role model not only to future politicians, but to the rest of the world.
