One of the exciting things about the goings-on inside and outside of Canada’s House of Commons, is the education many of us are getting about how the parliamentary system works — mudslinging aside.
Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party have been claiming that Canadians elected the Conservative government and that they specifically chose him as Prime Minister of Canada. We didn’t. Canadians don’t elect the Prime Minister. Canadians vote for the individual or party to represent their riding. It’s very locally-minded with the hope that the party they support will be elected to govern the country (or at least provide balance in the House of Commons). When Parliament convenes, the members of the House select the governing party and, by extension, the Prime Minister. The decision is obvious when there’s a majority party; that is, a party with more than half of the seats in the House of Commons, not just more seats than any other single party or group of parties.
It’s good sense for the ‘minority’ governing party to work collaboratively with the other parties in the House of Commons if they expect to have support for their agenda. Now, more than ever, collaboration is an exciting idea for many people in the world. Not so for old-school politicians, especially (so it would appear) the Conservatives and Stephen Harper whose political future is at stake here. After all, he called an unnecessary election (breaking his own govern-your-term policy for an opportunistic power-grab), won more seats and yet managed to lose support of the House after only six weeks.
Don’t get me wrong, the Conservatives have collaborated with other parties in the past. They managed to rally the support of The Bloc for some key votes over the last few years. Oddly, they’re accusing the newly struck Liberal-NDP coallition of including a separatist party in their agreement. Not so. They’re counting on Bloc support for key votes. Oh… and the opposition leaders did gather around the Canadian flag, by the way.
It’s very easy to be confused by soundbites played out of context and the misinformed arguments and shouting over the last week. Don’t be misled by the accusations being thrown around, or be convinced by the Conservatives that the Parliamentary and Republican systems of government are the same.
I’m guessing that Canada’s elementary and even high school politics lessons haven’t covered the intricacies of our current situation. I certainly hope they do now.
Photo of Stephen Harper from the Ottawa Sun, December 3.
Photo of Jack Layton, Stephane Dion and Gilles Duceppe by Chris Wattie/Reuters.
Who said Canadian politics was boring???
Harper’s indignation at having his King of the Castle status threatened reminds me of my 5th birthday (One of my earliest and most vivid memories). We actually had a party and the main event was a game of spin-the-bottle. I never was very good at absorbing rules and when the bottle stopped at me I was giddy with power-lusting glee and promptly instructed one of my guests to perform some degrading act. I can still *feel* my shock, anger, and humiliation as I was informed it was *me* that was to follow a degrading order. Poor, Mr. Harper. He didn’t understand the rules ;o)
Comment by Andrea Ross — December 3, 2008 @ 9:56 am
One particular aspect of this kerfuffle that worries me is how some journalists and politicians have mentioned public relations.
According to them, the Conservatives are simply trying to stall long enough to roll out a more elaborate PR campaign to discourage Canadians from supporting the coalition. There is no question as to whether or not this will work.
At some point, certain elements of the press and political machine adopted the view that the public doesn’t think for itself anymore. They seem to believe that we will obey whatever orders they give, so long as they’re packaged in a slick enough marketing strategy.
If there’s even an iota of truth to this cynical perspective, it is a sad statement about the communications profession, as well as the current state of our political process.
Comment by Francis Wooby — December 3, 2008 @ 10:06 am
Mark, I think most Canadians do know how the system works. Just because I completely disagree with what the opposition is doing does not mean I don’t understand how it works. Shaking our political foundation at this time is just plain bad governance. I’m not saying Harper is perfect, god knows I didn’t vote for him. But regardless of the outcome, this ego driven power play has damage our country.
Where is Ed Broadbent when you need him?
Comment by daryl cognito — December 3, 2008 @ 11:02 am
Based on what I’ve read on Facebook groups, on blogs and in petitions to prevent the coalition, people believe that the coalition includes the Bloc, that the act of forming a coalition government is punishable treason, that Canadians specifically voted for Stephen Harper as Prime Minister and that Harper would never even consider a coalition between his party and the Bloc (he actually did sign up with Duceppe back in 2004), I’m not convinced that Canadians truly understand how our political system works. I’ve also read that Harper has never put his own party’s power on the forefront of his leadership (though he did call an election this fall at a time when his popularity was up only halfway through his term). While it may not be true of everyone, it sure feels like this country is in need of a refresher on our political system.
Comment by Mark — December 3, 2008 @ 11:40 am
@daryl: Ed Broadbent is right where we need him — following, digesting, analyzing, advising, clarifying, using his experience and expertise to help the country he loves. I thought Ed Broadbent was brilliant on The Current this morning. It made my day.
Comment by Andrea Ross — December 3, 2008 @ 12:14 pm
I’ve never been into politics much, but I must say this whole situation fascinates me. It amazes me to no end how much we collectively don’t know about our political system.
Sad thing is, our collective ignorance seems to be outweighed by the ignorance of the person currently holding the title of Prime Minister. If anyone should know the game, it is he. If he’s genuinely surprised at either the opposition or the public backlash to his platform, he has no business living at 24 Sussex.
I look forward to seeing “Ex” in front of Mr Harper’s title.
Comment by Bob Goyetche — December 3, 2008 @ 1:57 pm
This is what we should all be watching at 7pm tonight:
http://www.cbc.ca/clips/mov/broadbent-invu081203.mov
THANK YOU, Mr. Broadbent.
Comment by Andrea Ross — December 3, 2008 @ 5:31 pm
Well said Mark.
Here’s another well said from The Toronto Star today.
http://tinyurl.com/5u2f9q
Also the wiki on Canadian Governmental disputes,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Canadian_Liberal-NDP_coalition_government
So it seems our Governor General has her hands full.
Comment by Richard Bunky Bell — December 3, 2008 @ 5:37 pm
My bad, I haven’t kept up with the facebook stuff. The local right wing, pro Harper newspaper put out a couple of pages explaining how this stuff works and even wrote at 3rd grade level so most Albertans could understand it. I just assumed most knew how this worked. (however I consider all separatists, Quebec or Alberta to be traitors)
I will admit that my response to this is based in fear and clouded with emotion. I worry that we will see the dollar crash, interest rates rise, foreign investors run from us. It was a minority government but at least it was stable. I really get worried because I work in social services and healthcare, the liberals raped Canada’s social safety net in the 90s and we still haven’t recovered.
I simply don’t believe that this group is acting in the best interest of Canadians. IMHO they are trying to seize power for their own political agendas with no regard for the citizens of Canada.
Once last thing, if politics is exciting then they are doing it wrong. There is nothing exciting about good governance it is just something that has to be done. And at one time Canadians were good at it.
Comment by daryl cognito — December 3, 2008 @ 6:09 pm
@andrea, thanx for the link, my opinion of Mr Broadbent just hit bottom. I am disgusted.
Comment by daryl cognito — December 3, 2008 @ 6:16 pm
On the notion that Mr. Dion has political ambitions and it is a seizure of power to sate such ambitions, that seems unlikely as he will be leaving office shortly.
I find the Bloc, as a whole, to be supportive of ethnic nationalism, which is one of the most destructive forces in history. That said, they were elected. They are not a part of the coalition. The most ardent federalist in Canadian history, Pierre Trudeau, sat down with M. Levesque on a number of occasions.
This has been the greatest miscalculation since Joe Clark in 1980. The miscalculator is Mr. Harper.
Comment by Dave Brodbeck — December 3, 2008 @ 10:38 pm
@daryl, I’m really surprised. I thought Broadbent was informed, articulate and practical. What was it about the interview that put you off so much?
Comment by Mark — December 4, 2008 @ 1:07 am
@Mark you know, the bad thing there is that Mr. Broadbent pointed out the continuous lies of Mr. Harper and the Conservatives, and talked about how they tried to remove the right to strike. Oh and that whole Canadian flag thing…
If calling a cabal of liars “liars” (and proving it) is bad then I am pretty sure we live in a fantasy land on lollipop lane.
Comment by Dave Brodbeck — December 4, 2008 @ 7:17 am
Watching Harper’s TV address last night made me angry. This man has got to go.
This man says one thing in English, and another in French. Either he is speaking french phonetically off a teleprompter and has no idea what he’s saying, or he’s simply too stupid to realize the percentage of the Canadian population that is bilingual and can hear the difference.
My money’s on the second option, but either way, he’s out.
@daryl – I don’t get what bothered you about Broadbent –
please explain -
Comment by Bob Goyetche — December 4, 2008 @ 9:01 am
@mark Mr Broadbent appeared to be talking about a bailout, which I can not support. He also sat there saying the same crap that I think cost the NDP the election. No answers, nothing helpful, just call the other call the other guy a lair and an idiot. I believe that Canada’s system and it’s policies were going to pull us through the economic crisis and we would have come out the other side bruised but in better shape than the US. By pulling this now, we will plummet to the bottom along with the US. (again, my emotion my cloud the facts for me so take this with a grain of salt.)
Comment by daryl cognito — December 4, 2008 @ 10:03 am
Yikes! The GG said yes!
I’m heading over there now to see if she’ll change my christmas vacation to Dec.4 to Jan.25 too!
Comment by Andrea Ross — December 4, 2008 @ 2:10 pm
Harper boasted that “Following my advice, the Governor General has agreed to prorogue Parliament”. How is he qualified to give advice on the governance of this nation?
Comment by Mark — December 4, 2008 @ 2:27 pm
and if she hadn’t “followed his advice”, he would have asked the Queen to replace her.
I hope our kids aren’t following this…..
Comment by Andrea Ross — December 4, 2008 @ 2:36 pm
Calling a guy a liar that is telling lies seems rather reasonable to me.
Comment by Dave Brodbeck — December 4, 2008 @ 4:09 pm
I seem to remember someone tweeting that they wish Canadian politics were as exciting as the Americans. Well careful what you wish for.
Comment by daryl cognito — December 4, 2008 @ 6:24 pm
I don’t know how much this is exciting and how much this is embarrassing. Among other things, I’m embarrassed for Harper because he has no clue that he’s the catalyst for all of this confusion and dissent.
Comment by Mark — December 5, 2008 @ 9:52 am
Mark, I think most Canadians do know how the system works. Just because I completely disagree with what the opposition is doing does not mean I don't understand how it works. Shaking our political foundation at this time is just plain bad governance. I'm not saying Harper is perfect, god knows I didn't vote for him. But regardless of the outcome, this ego driven power play has damage our country.
Where is Ed Broadbent when you need him?
Comment by daryl cognito — December 31, 2009 @ 3:05 am