Thoughts On A Crisis

I intend to make this my last article on this mess until something more substantive than a constant flurry of punditry bottlenecks the Canadian internet, although I do understand the irony of that statement. I also reserve the right to flip-flop like a west coast Salmon if something really interesting comes to light tomorrow.

I’ve read probably ten dozen articles tonight, half by skimming the important parts, but others very slowly, as I pored over the words and meaning. I’ve selected a few of the very best opinions from today, and in this way I want to share my views on where we now stand, only 5 days from having our elected government overthrown by the opposition.

The first issue I want to mention is that the coalition is not illegitimate. It isn’t unconstitutional, as my critics have challenged I was asserting. And my concern is not with democracy, coalitions, or the fact that those who did not vote for Stephen Harper exceeded in number those who did. As Andrew Coyne writes, it isn’t necessarily the legitimacy by letter of the law, but the legitimacy of the Canadian public accepting it:

The policies it pursues are, in my judgement, likely to prove calamitous for the country, and ruinous for the Liberal party. But if that is what the majority of the House decides, that is how our system works.

Up to a point. The public’s views of the result cannot simply be ignored. It may be that the Conservatives are appealing to popular ignorance of parliamentary government, with their demands for an election before any change of government. But it may also be that there is a broader question of legitimacy at play: past a certain point, if a thing is rejected by the public, it becomes illegitimate. This is such a bizarre situation, such an extreme application of the traditional Parliamentary prerogative to choose a government — defeating a government so soon after an election, and propping up such a rickety contraption in its place…

[...]

There is something to be said about the process through which political parties are elected into power being also an organic one. Nobody can claim this has been an inspiring rise of altruistic motives to bring Canada from the depths of economic despair. As non-partisan writer Graeme of Nunc Scio pens humourously: “If anyone can make a coherent argument as to why the rise of a coalition government was a grassroots victory and not a backroom political deal, I will give that person a unicorn.” It isn’t just non-partisans, but otherwise apolitical Canadians who agree that public perception in the legitimacy of a government holds a key amount of import in the accruing of that power.

Once one scratches the razor-thin veneer of this coalition being one “united” to save the Canadian economy from devastation under a callous Conservative government [their own Accord on a Cooperative Government spells out these untruths in plain English], you begin to see the very self-serving and entirely destructive partisan aims of each participant in this game. Not only do you have the Liberals who are trying to seize power after having been resoundingly rejected in the past election, but you can see in their “accord” the various nuances of their last failed platform that, conveniently, will become an aid for this “troubled” economy. You also have the NDP with Jack “the camel” Layton along for the ride in Cabinet, seeing this opportunity as the best of all worlds for a political party destined for the desert for many more years yet to come. And then there is the Bloc Quebecois. Yes indeed, the Bloc separatists have done very well for themselves already:

Not for Canada and a foreign nation. Not for Canada and a province. Québec treated as an equal: a nation-state in fact. How any Canadian patriot could sign such a document or support it is beyond me, for no province is above the others in the sense of being a co-equal nation-state to the country itself. But this is what “Captain Canada”, le Professeur Dion, and Jack “I never met a bandwagon I didn’t jump on” Layton have signed onto: the de facto separate and equal status of the nation-state of Québec.

[...]

I hope not to see this soon, even though there are reasons I think I will see it in about a decade or so. (That’s for another day.) But there is no question in my mind but that Dion’s comments tonight on the television, talking about wedging his green initiatives in with the deficit financing of handouts in the East and adoption of the NDP position on taxation, would be more than enough to trigger a groundswell of Western Alienation and Separation.

That this mishmash of separate-but-equal interests are somehow coalescing to represent the unified voice of Canadians, even though a vast number of those who will be disenfranchised from their political vote live in Western Canada, is the worst of all bad jokes. To pretend that this is somehow a solution for our economy and our dysfunctional, bitterly partisan, and horribly unworkable Parliament is also a joke. The Conservatives and Prime Minister Stephen Harper have invited this hubristic coup d’etat in part by their continued willingness to constantly take partisan decisions [and even now refuse to change that fundamental strategy], but the opposition are nothing if not equal players in this pillow fight.

The fact is that the coalition won’t work because there are no equal partners in this “game”. Only winners and losers, and the vast majority of the “losers” would be Conservatives, and rural and Western Canadians. Nothing about this coalition is unifying except in the fact that sometimes self-interest can temporarily arrange for odd coalitions. Consider that once Stalin and Hitler were allies.

Now with the late hour approaching and Godwin’s Law being invoked somewhere in Calgary, Alberta, I bid you adieu.

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An Appeal For Calm

I haven’t even read the blogs yet tonight, and I’m not sure I really want to. 238 of 246 unread posts from 26 different blogs is daunting. Of course I could just delete the Macleans entries and be down to 171.

The point is that the past few days have brought the blogosphere from it’s post-election lull back into the frenetic state of panic, a flurry of up-to-the-minute punditry, and links to mainstream media articles with 560 comments from readers. Yeah, it’s pretty insane.

Stephen Harper addressed Canadians today regarding the imminent threat of his government being overthrown by an unlikely coalition of three parties. He spoke about what one might expect, accusing the opposition of imposing a deal “without your consent and without your vote.” He also questioned a government coalition that included the support of separatists, although as others have mentioned, it’s not a feeling necessarily based on partisan opinion.

No, what surprised me above all else is that Stephen Harper opened the doors for a way back. He and his party have made very serious concessions and amendments to their plans, and have indicated they are more than willing to “work” with the opposition. The main justification for bringing down the government is “Stephen Harper still refuses to propose measures to stimulate the Canadian economy”, according to Stephane Dion. But what more can the opposition really demand from the Harper government other than the stated abandonment of the offensive parts of their economic motion, and also this statement:

We are consulting with, and expect to hear more from, the opposition parties in Parliament. We hope they bring forward specific proposals — we have invited them to do so. In fact, we have already changed some of our proposals to meet their concerns.

But if you watch Stephane Dion and Jack Layton, listen to their speeches, and read between the lines, it seems that they are more interested in committing to a coalition now than they are stepping back and taking a long and hard look at what has transpired in little more than five days.

The truth is that if this really were something that were spontaneously inspired by a failure to work any longer with the ruling government, then the sensible, prudent, pragmatic thing to do would be to give it a good, long, hard look. But that’s not what’s happening. No, instead we realize this is nothing more than a backroom deal that was hatched long before Stephen Harper tried to cut election subsidies, and possibly long before Stephane Dion was defeated soundly in the last election.

The fact is that the opposition has not left the government an ultimatum. They’ve served notice of their intent to rule themselves. The only problem with that is the opposition must prove the Conservatives have failed to confidence of the House to proceed. Given today’s speech by the Prime Minister, his open invitation to feedback and cooperation with the opposition, by rejecting to find a way to compromise with the elected government, they undermine the democratic principles upon which they themselves were elected. It then leaves the Conservatives in a purgatory that no government is deserving of: asking the Governor General to prorogue Parliament, or else waiting until the axe falls on their necks.

The most hopeful sign of cracks in the coalition comes from reluctant Liberals, who see how damaging this could be to their party and to the country, and are reticent to make so bold a move without deliberation. Business leaders are also unlikely to welcome such turbulence in the economy at the moment, even as news of the coalition tanked the stock markets. Not only could instability scare off investment, but dumping money into the economy is likely going to lead to higher inflation and pressure on interest rates. One would think that the “coalition” would be considerate to the economy they are trying to “save” by taking more time to decide whether it’s a good idea at all.

The only other obvious answer is that if they don’t need long to think about it, then they’ve already done so months ago, and all of “this” is nothing more than playing the game for the cameras.

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