The Last Exile

The latest poll has the Tory lead evaporating and is now well within the margin of error. I spent Sunday reading the blogs; left, right and centre concerning the No to Prorogue rallies held across the country. Norman Spector has an interview up with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and asks him the question of the day – what does the no prorogue demonstrations mean to him?

Interviewer: Your staff tell me that we’ve only got a few minutes so I’ll get straight to the point.

What’s your reaction to the “hordes of protesters” we saw in the streets today — not far from where we are right now, as it happens — demanding that MPs get back to work?

PM: It’s always good to see Canadians actively engaged in politics, and I would hope that this level of engagement —particularly among young Canadians — will continue and be enhanced in the future, which — regrettably — appears not to be the case in the United States.

Interviewer: Prime Minister, I think we can all agree on that. But what do you say to the men and women of all ages demanding that MPs get back to work? Let me read you what a ten-year veteran of Parliament Hill who now co-owns a progressive media agency had to say about a demonstration that took place not far from where you and your family live: “I’ve had a front-row seat to all kinds of mass gatherings and rarely do you see one this co-ordinated, this large and this unified. It takes a lot to make Canadians take to the streets in numbers worth noting.”

PM: Well, I could cite other, more objective reports — including incredibly enough that of CBC, CBC French that is — that only 300 people turned out in Montréal and 100 in Halifax, but I’m not going to get into a numbers game with you. In a democracy, it’s unacceptable in my view to disparage in any way even one citizen exercising his or her fundamental freedoms and democratic rights.

As to getting back to work, I can only say to hard-working Canadians that most of our government have worked overtime along with our dedicated public servants during the Christmas holiday — one of several long breaks that MPs voted themselves years ago because of the particular nature of their jobs.

What Harper has in common with the bloggers of the so-called ‘right’ is this idea that the rallies and anger towards the prorogation of Parliament mean very little to conservative political fortunes. While it is all well and good to say that Tory MP’s are hard at work, the fact remains, sitting in the House of Commons just happens to be an important and large part of an MP’s job. Its not the only job requirement but it happens to be what makes being an MP different than being a federal bureaucrat. It’s the political equivalent of a surgeon refusing to perform surgeries. Sure, paperwork, and post-op supervision is part of the job of being a surgeon, but without the surgeries, well what’s the point?

What the political fortunes of the so-call conservative base is failing to comprehend is the people are not satisfied with their style of governance. I have lived in this country long enough that mostly Canadian are an apathetic lot politically. Anytime ordinary Canadians feel compelled to protest its your cue to stand up and pay attention – not sweep it under the rug with a wave of your hand and a stroke of the keyboard.

Go back to your keyboards and pretend its all screaming meany hippies and commie bastards and all significant of nothing much but when you loose natural conservatives like me from your base – your in trouble, big trouble and without big significant – ‘like on the road to Damascus’ style change your political aspirations will stall and sink. Tories are losing in Quebec and in Ontario. Hate us all you want but without Ontario and Quebec its ‘Hello, from the opposition benches’. So far, the Tories remain lucky that the Liberal leader remains a political lame duck but Fortune is a fickle mistress. Keep it you and I guarantee you we will all be saying Prime Minister Ignatieff.

But don’t you dare act surprised or say you weren’t warned.

And yes, because I am a such a cold-hearted bitch, I have to post this. And I don’t even really like Bob. He might be the King of Prorogue but he never prorogued the legislature to avoid a direct order from the provincial parliament. Oh, and Bob did have a clear majority I might add – something which remains elusive to our Prime Minister. Gee, I wonder why that is?

Uncle Bob at the Piano h/t Warren Kinsella.

This week the Harper Conservatives have seen a significant drop in support of their government this week. So much for thinking prorogation of government does not matter to ordinary Canadians, but what the polls suggest is that the Harper Conservatives maintains support only from the hyper-partisan Harper Conservative base. The polls are also a testament to the completely ineffectual leadership of the current Liberal party who cannot capitalized on a government which the majority of Canadian remain unswayed by.

I have no doubt the Harper Conservative fortunes will rise again and perhaps even verge on the outer edges of majority territory but – and there is always a but. If there is one thing the last 4 plus years of minority Conservative government should teach us it is this; the Harper Conservatives do not govern well with others and as sure as rain they will fumble the good governance ball when running any given government ministry. As time goes by more balls will come to light and the dropping will continue until it snowballs them into oblivion. Besides,

In the search for elusive majority rule the Harper Conservatives have focused on replacing the Liberals as Canada’s ‘natural governing party’ rather than providing effectual and open governance. The Liberals did not set out to become Canada’s natural governing party but instead sought to appeal to the widest possible sector of the Canadian voting population. A something for everything kind of political party – eventually this governing philosophy ran to ground in its own hubris. Canadians decided the Liberals needed to be taught a lesson about the public trust which is the only reason the Harper Conservatives were able to lead a series of minority government – but majority government after 4+ years later remains elusive to the Harper Conservatives. The Canadian voting public remains unmoved and contrary to the partisan conservatives the vast majority of Canadians aren’t willing to put aside all their more liberal ideals.

The only way forward for conservatives is not to seek to mimic the Liberal party successes but become the party of principles and openness rather political opportunism. It will grow increasingly harder for Harper Conservatives to maintain their minority lead status in the future until they develop a guiding philosophy of principles based on open government and ruling by consensus rather than a guiding philosophy based on political opportunism and innate need to bully its political opponents. It may make entertaining politicking to watch but Canadians don’t like watching anyone hammered into the ground.

The Liberal party is in a position to send the current incarnation of the Conservative party to an indefinite stay in political Coventry by doing three things. First, the Liberal party has to do is remain an effective critic of Harper Conservative governance and highlight the not ready for prime time nature of the Harper Conservative cabinet ministers – the Tory pool of talented managers is rather limited…as in the one-trick pony kind of way. Secondly, the Liberal party must demonstrate two qualities to the Canadian voting public – that the Liberals have shaken off their hubris and matured into a party which can again be worthy of the public trust and can lead Canadians where they are comfortable being politically – and that’s the fork in the road of politically philosophies.

While the Tories have shown themselves to be supporters of Canadian militarism; its a position which most Canadians remain extremely uncomfortable with. As a people, Canadians take a dim view of soldiering in foreign wars, and much prefer the idea of our military being used to keep warring sides from slaughtering each other rather than picking sides and joining in. And it is this point which the Harper Conservatives dressed up in their military righteousness fail to fully grasp; and consequently, will continue to misunderstand the growing principled opposition to the Afghanistan mission.

Yes, the Canadian Conservative movement has its’ very own only ‘rabble’ and its just as unpalatable as the more infamous leftist variety. And I quote Dodo Can Spell (but not much else).

I feel that if one is not a voter, they should just simply shut up.

You are free to feel whatever you want but whether one chooses to vote or not to vote is an elemental exercise in freedom of conscience which makes it just one of many hallmarks of living in a free society and in no should be arbitrary used to stifle or suppress dissent. The stifling or suppressing of dissenting opinions are benchmarks of totalitarian society.

But Dodo isn’t done yet.

Those of us who consider that voting is  our privilege first, and a right second, feel that the PM has done what needed to be done.

You could not be more wrong if you worked at it full time 24/7. This sentiment shows the most marginal comprehension of how parliamentary democracy actually works and the most appalling level of ignorance of Canadian political history.

Voting is the charter right of every single Canadian citizen who has reached the age of majority as well as a responsibility of citizenship but in no way shape or form is it our ‘privilege’. Canadians have died for and fought for the right. This is not a ‘privilege’ granted from ‘on high’. My grandmothers protested and fought for the ‘right’ to vote in Canada and it did get downright ugly.

But as hard to believe; it gets even more embarrassing:

The bickering in Parliament, even over the passing of the most logical bills, simply because the opposition parties want to prove they are the “opposition” are seen by many as bullying tactics. Delays and more delays because of the bully politics does not make for a good governance of the people.

Let me leave the rabble with the words of a younger Stephen Harper to ponder so the rabble can twist tie itself up into knots trying to justify and reconcile how far he has moved from this principled position.

“When a government starts trying to cancel dissent or avoid dissent is frankly when it’s rapidly losing its moral authority to govern.” ( Canadian Press, April 18, 2005)

h/t Saskboy for the Harper Quote

Our Prime Minister advises Canadians that the decision to prorogue Parliament is nothing ‘unusual’ via the Ottawa Citizen.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is brushing off criticism of his decision to shut down Parliament for the next two months, calling the move a “routine” procedure that will enable the government to “recalibrate” its agenda.

“The decision to prorogue, when the government has the confidence of the House, is a routine constitutional matter,” said the prime minister, referring to the technical term for ending a session of Parliament.

“There’s nothing particularly unusual about a session of Parliament being roughly a year in length,” Harper said during the interview with CBC Television at his office on Parliament Hill. Governments do want to examine their agenda from time to time and refresh it, and I would simply invite the opposition parties to take the opportunity to advance their own ideas.”

Harper asked Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean to prorogue Parliament on Dec. 30, ending the parliamentary session and killing more than 30 government bills. Instead of returning on Jan. 25, as previously scheduled.

Well, yes and no. No, Stephen Harper was not the first Prime Ministers to have prorogued Parliament before but it highly irregular to prorogue Parliament twice in any one single 12 month period which is exactly what Mr. Harper has done. And I suggest Mr. Harper set his assistants to research and advise Canadians how many Canadian Prime Ministers have prorogued Parliament in order to avoid complying with a direct order from Parliament?

Actually, I can save everyone humongous amounts of time as there has not been a single Canadian Prime Minister who has defied an order of Parliament by proroguing Parliament till now. This singular dubious distinction belongs entirely to Stephen Harper. While Stephen Harper may think he’s merely ‘conserving’ the ‘conservative’ rule of Parliament rather than abusing it; I have the weight of history and the luxury of time on my side. I seriously doubt history will be very kind in their treatment of Stephen Harper’s Conservatives. I know I won’t be.

According to this Globe and Mail article political ‘insiders’ are suggesting the Prime Minister has no desire to call a spring election. And you know what? With the kind of work ethic the Harper Conservatives are showing; I am not surprised in the slightest.

Forget all that speculation about a spring election.

Stephen Harper has no intention of calling an election or engineering the defeat of his minority government any time soon, insiders close to the Prime Minister say. “The chances of hell freezing over in March are better than us doing something to trigger an election,” one source said flatly.

“There’s no appetite [for an election] in the government, there’s no appetite in the PM and there’s no appetite in the Canadian public.” Rather, Mr. Harper intends to keep his focus resolutely fixed on the “issues that matter to Canadians,” first among which is steering the country through the fragile economic recovery, the insider said on condition of anonymity.

How Harper intends to keep his focus resolutely fixed on ‘issues that matter to Canadians’ when he just decided to not show up for work for a few months boggles my mind. Maybe its because I am a conservative but there is something fiscally irresponsible and morally offensive about being forced to pay the salaries for a group of slackers who just decided they cannot be bothered to show at work for a couple of months. Maybe everyone else in this country is fine with this – but it just doesn’t sit well with me.

I haven’t written about the proroguing of the Canadian Parliament for the second time in less than a year out of disgust. Instead of spewing the bile of more than a few expletives; I suggest you read Putting the Olympics before the House of Commons. Alan at Gen X is much nicer than me and he still manages to gets the point across rather succinctly.