Tromper News Updates

And here's the other offering I prepared at the height of "Coalition Fever". It was not that well received by my critics and it's a bit dated but I stand by it even today as the coalition appears to be crumbling. AH

There is Another Option for This Parliament For 22 months the Conservatives governed this country like they had a majority. Knowing that the Liberals were in such disarray that they could never be successful at the polls, they made almost all bills in the house confidence motions. They assaulted the hapless Dion with a mean spirited barrage of attack ads and generally browbeat and humiliated the opposition parties. Then, sensing that the time was right, Harper subverted his own fixed election law and dissolved parliament using the argument that it was dysfunctional. With only a strengthened minority he returned to the house sending signals that he was ready to work in a more conciliatory fashion with the opposition and then … pow! He used the Economic update to introduce measures that would be a body blow to the opposition parties not to speak of the attack on pay equity and the right to strike for civil servants. So what are the people of Canada to think when the opposition calls him on this foolish attack and now threatens to take him down and form the government themselves? It’s pretty clear that the majority of Canadians either outright reject this option or are at least hesitant in their support. And now we are hearing that this lack of enthusiasm includes some Liberal Party members. Emotions are running events and all parties have tarnished their public image. Canadians see this battle as being about a fierce desire either to preserve power or to extract revenge. There is no trust and without it this minority parliament cannot function. However, there is a way out of this mess and I would hope it is being considered. Trust needs to be replaced with a simple framework of temporary rules that would allow the party’s to save face and gracefully back away from the precipice. As it stands now the Conservatives face a confidence vote on either the content of the Throne speech or the budget on January 27th. The coalition, if it holds together, will carry this vote and defeat the government. It will rightly expect the GG to deny a subsequent request by Harper to go to the polls and instead to invite the coalition to form a new government. The NDP and the Bloc have nothing to lose in this scenario but the Liberals do. Unless this seemingly unwieldy union is seen to govern in a superb fashion and also benefits from dramatically favourable winds of fate, the Conservatives will ultimately be the big winners in the court of public opinion. The opposition cannot be faulted for trying to defend itself against the treatment it got in the last parliament and it knows that if it lets the Conservative Government get even a few months into its mandate, the window for the coalition option closes. At that point or at any point thereafter, Harper would get his election. The temporary rules I envision would protect the Conservatives from defeat on an immediate confidence vote in January and assure the opposition that for the balance of this parliament, confidence motions would be introduced for only the traditionally appropriate issues (Budgets, Throne speeches and issues of national security). The opposition would have to agree to give the government a one-time free pass for both the January Throne speech and the budget but both of these bills are going to be so loaded with goodies that it would look pretty silly to vote them down anyway. With this agreement in place, real consensus will be required for legislation to be passed, parliament will function as it should, and we can expect that the interests of all Canadians will be served. It’s expected that we will elect minority parliaments for the foreseeable future. If they’re going to work constructively our leaders need to sincerely adopt the spirit of compromise. And it wouldn’t hurt the process a bit if both Harper and Dion stepped aside right now. AH