the political circus that was novcember 2008

These past few weeks have been a huge whirlwind of political drama. Regardless of party affiliation, political junkies soak it up with excitement. Within the span of 3 weeks, Ottawa managed to run through a slew of "political occurrences" that would otherwise normally happen over a span of a few years:

Just a little over two weeks ago, Jim Flaherty delivered one of the most blatantly partisan and outlandish fiscal updates in Canadian history; prompting the opposition to stand up and band together. Canadians were on the verge of having Stephane Dion move into the PMO, with an NDP leading Industry Canada, all made possible with the backing of the separatist Bloc Quebecois. Then.... (take a breath) Harper then managed to convince our honourable GG to prorogue parliament, which in turn intensified the already existing leadership grumbles in the Liberal Party. The grumbles and dissatisfaction from within the party causes Stephane Dion to make an early exit as leader of the LPC to make way for an "interim" leader. As a sign of party unity, Dominic LeBlanc and Bob Rae drop out of the leadership race, thus crowning Michael Ignatieff as the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. (stop and take a sip of water... and a another deep breath) Which brings us to where we are today. Stephen Harper, with a sudden change of persona, decided that he should extend an olive branch of bipartisanship to work with (instead of taking funding away from) opposition parties to draft this upcoming budget. With this circus of events clouding the media, he hoped Canadians wouldn't notice when he decided to flip-flop and stack the Senate with un-elected Tory cronies, which he stood so vehemently against doing. (BREATH!) I am sure more will happen in the upcoming weeks. 2009 should be an interesting year.

And you thought Canadian politics was boring! This is 100x more exciting than Obama cabinet speculations and Michelle Obama first lady fashion critiques.

As history shows, whenever Bob Rae is a member of any legislature, exciting and dramatic things tend to happen. That's why we love Bob!

thoughts on the coalition that was or may be

When word first started getting out about the idea of a coalition, as per my previous post on November 28, I was all for it! I was on the wagon! I was all game! But since then, many things have happened and I've remained fairly silent as to what my thoughts are. I took some time to re-think. I felt it was too easy to jump on the pro-coalition wagon without properly thinking through the long-term consequences.

As a centrist/moderate Chretien Liberal, I value moderation. I value moderate Conservatives and moderate Liberals who are willing to work with each other to have healthy and productive debates in order to move Canada forward. With Stephen Harper at the helm, there have been nothing but divisive games, sneaky attacks to literally destroy the opposition, and a huge slew of partisan games and negative advertising that continues to build on the cynicism that Canadians have about politics. There would be nothing happier for me than to see Stephen Harper go. I welcome a moderate conservative, like Jim Prentice or Jean Charest, to take the Tory helm. And for that reason alone did I first support the idea of a coalition. But as attractive as it may sound, getting rid of Harper is only a short term solution… what about long term?

I actually applaud the Governor General for proroguing parliament. If Stephane Dion, fresh from a devastating election loss, had become Prime Minister, I am certain that Canadians would have punished the Liberals beyond John Turner levels and would have given the Conservatives a landslide majority in the next election. This prorogation has allowed the Liberals to take time and figure out the leadership situation. Dominic LeBlanc and Bob Rae have both graciously bowed out of the leadership race for the sake of party unity. Michael Ignatieff, who I have supported since 2006, is now the unified (temporarily labelled as 'interim') leader of the Liberal Party Canada. Unlike his predecessor, Michael espouses the confidence, the sense of courage, and poise that a Prime Minister should have. He has already shown in the past few days that he has, and will continue to have, the political savviness to stand up against the extremely partisan and negative attacks from Stephen Harper and his friends in the front bench. There is a lot more that needs to be done and I am optimistic.

I got some flack for "Dion bashing" in my previous posts. I personally see it more as "stating the obvious" and asking other Liberals to get a whiff of reality. We have been bullied for too long. Instead of pretending like nothing is wrong, blindly lining up behind our "fearless" leader, and pushing through this rushed coalition, let's recognize the weaknesses and make sure that we do not make the same mistakes and missteps again. I have a lot of respect for Stephane Dion. He made outstanding contributions as Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and Minister of the Environment in the Chretien and Martin governments. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to convince Canadians that he was the right man to lead the country. I sincerely hope he decides to remain as the MP for St. Laurent - Cartierville and as a major player in the future Liberal cabinet. I thank Dion for his contributions and for graciously stepping down as leader for party unity purposes.

There are many reasons as to why I feel somewhat uneasy about forming a coalition with the support of the Bloc. If the Liberals and NDP themselves had enough seats to outnumber the Conservatives, will then the idea of a coalition would be more credible and feasible. Not only are there ideological differences, but with three strong hard-headed characters at the helm of each of the parties, there is bound to be disagreements and internal grumblings that will wear on the legitimacy of the coalition. And by giving the separatist Bloc Quebecois more power, there comes risk of giving steam and unintentionally legitimizing the sovereignty movement. There also comes the risk of over-regionalization by focussing too much on Quebec issues at the expense of other provinces. Furthermore I personally am not a huge fan of Jack Layton and the NDP. With their past antics, I sometimes feel that they are the Reform Party of the left. But in order to succeed, we Liberals need to be "big tent" once again and reach out and possibly work with the other federalist parties and bring our team back to the centre. There is a lot of mechanics, logistics and agreements to sort out before rushing to haphazardly topple the Harper Conservatives.

So overall, a coalition is not my first choice of action. I would prefer that our new leader Michael Ignatieff, and the other party leaders, try to work with Harper and come up with a budget that works for everyone. That is what a minority situation is all about. If the Tories continue to do things like they have a majority after these consultations then, as a last resort, should we go ahead with a well-thought-out and unified coalition. If these budgetary consultations are successful, Michael Ignatieff will come out as a unifier and a leader that managed to bring peace to an all-out circus. Instead of trying to rush back into power, let's give Canadians a chance to see what he's made of as leader of her Majesty's Official Opposition. Just like when Chretien took over from John Turner in 1990, time in opposition with Ignatieff at the helm will give us time to heal, grow, and show Canadians once again that we are the alternative and the natural governing party of our great country.