I wrote this piece for my local weekly, The Pictou Advocate. I thought web site readers might find it interesting.....meanwhile today, October 10, hold good thoughts, cross fingers and toes, for our colleagues in the Green Party of Ontario! Go Frank GO!! Win that Seat Shane!!!
Ontario residents: get out and VOTE and do whatever you can to help the MMP referendum!
Elizabeth
The buzz in Ottawa is all about whether the Speech from the Throne on October 16 will lead to an election or not. The Opposition Parties are posturing and the Prime Minister is taunting them. What seems left out in the cold is the essence of Canadian Parliamentary democracy -- the concept of a Loyal Opposition.
Mr. Harper is trying to create the impression that, as a Minority government, he has a right to act like a Majority if Opposition parties do not defeat him. Harper wants to force an agenda Canadians do not want down our collective throats. The Opposition Parties have responded with lists of demands. Layton and the NDP want immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan (no mention of other issues). The Bloc wants Ottawa to abandon authority to spend in areas of provincial jurisdiction, out of Afghanistan by 2009, honouring Kyoto, and a few other “non-negotiable” demands. Mr. Dion said the Liberals need to hear the Speech first (a novel approach) but are unlikely to support the current direction of the government.
The best of the lot is now Independent M.P. Bill Casey who has said that unless the Conservatives honour the Atlantic Accord, he will not vote to support the Speech from the Throne. His release had just the right amount of tongue in cheek humour to the whole ultimatum thing. I would vote with him.
The idea of treating the Speech from the Throne like a budget is fairly unusual. No Canadian government has ever fallen due to a Throne Speech. It is not usually seen as a confidence motion. Prime Minister Harper is talking tough. The other parties have to “fish or cut bait.” He is treating the Canadian Parliament the way George Bush treats the world: you are with us or against us.
The bully-boy tactics miss something pretty fundamental. Opposition Parties are allowed to oppose a government agenda. They do so and are still called Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition. The Prime Minister has no right to assert that he has some kind of mandate when Canadians only supported his party with about one third of the vote. The majority of Canadians want things Stephen Harper opposes.
If we are in an election, so be it. The sooner Stephen Harper moves out of 24 Sussex Drive, the better. The threats are not becoming to the Prime Minister nor to the institutions he is sworn to uphold. The cynicism in the way all the parties approach the critical issues facing our nation increase public fatigue and disillusionment with politics.
Nevertheless, if we are in an election campaign this fall, let us hope it will enhance our democratic traditions by focusing on issues and solutions, not spin and attack ads. At least I can control one campaign: my own. I will do all I can to ensure both here in Central Nova and nationally as Federal Green Leader, that the public interest in respectful debate is served. And that is a promise.