So take Savoie seriously when he says, as he did in an interview this week, that the events of the past few days measure the rapid acceleration of a decades-old trend. In forcefully imposing a notably personal agenda on a Parliament with life-and-death powers over his administration, Harper is taking advantage of a specific political circumstance – disorganized Liberals fear a campaign – and the generalized truth that between elections modern prime ministers are perilously close to omnipotent.
"There's no question," Savoie says, "that the Prime Minister has all the power he could possibly want."
Harper is not the first to yank those levers, nor is he alone among recent prime ministers in recognizing that the most effective, and certainly most comfortable way to manage complex issues is by controlling them at the epicentre. In practice that means two offices that serve the Prime Minister rule while backbenchers, cabinet ministers and ultimately Parliament watch.
Harper's "fish or cut bait" ultimatum is one test of Parliament's growing irrelevance. Those no-name representatives of the people are essentially being told to stand-down from their elected task. Under threat of an imminent campaign, public policies tightly scripted by an inner circle that only occasionally intersects with ministers or the civil service are to be approved without amendment or improvement.
Another revealing illustration of concentrated power is the appointment of a panel to steer Canada's post-2009 Afghanistan course. Rather than trust an all-party committee reporting to Parliament, Harper is delegating that politically charged responsibility to a handpicked elite beholden only to him.
Led by former Liberal deputy prime minister John Manley and including Derek Burney, a former chief of staff and ambassador to the U.S. under Brian Mulroney, and the head of Harper's transition team, the panellists are among what Savoie calls the new courtiers. In return for access, prestige and handsome per diems, they whisper advice the king can accept, dismiss or ignore depending on his wants, needs or whims.
http://www.thestar.com/columnists/article/268725
[Proofreader’s note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on October 22, 2007]
Note: http://www.thestar.com/...
PM's Grip On Power Makes Parliament Irrelevant
Posted on Saturday, October 20 at 19:56 by 4CanadaContributed By
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Steven Staples' article says Stephen Harper's plan to continue Canada's combat role has become crystal clear. Harper is trying to extend the war by another two years.<br />
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We now know that his plan is to go ahead with a parliamentary vote on extending the mission another two years until 2011, but he needs the support of another party's MPs because the Conservatives are in a minority.<br />
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So, based on advice from pollsters and strategists, Stephen Harper and General Hillier will spin the war as a humanitarian mission, all the while continuing the counter-insurgency fighting. He hopes this will help to divide the Liberal Party by convincing some Liberal MPs to support his military plan in the parliamentary vote.<br />
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You'll remember that last year Harper used the same strategy to great effect. He held a quick vote to extend the mission by two years until 2009, dividing the Liberals. He won the support of many Liberal MPs, such as Michael Ignatieff (while many more just stayed away from the vote), and managed to commit Canada to two more disastrous years of war.<br />
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Now Harper has created a terribly unbalanced "expert panel" on the future of Canada's mission in Afghanistan. The panel is led by former Liberal MP John Manley, who is a proponent of a “Fortress North America” with the United States.<br />
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Stephen Harper is counting on John Manley to lead pro-war, pro-Bush Liberals to support the Afghanistan war.<br />
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Manley is deeply worrisome. Last year, he told a conference Canada had to give up its sovereignty and create a continental security perimeter: "We've got to get away from this idea that sovereignty is an absolute that can never be compromised." He went on to say that "the most important obligation of the Canadian Prime Minister" is to improve relations with U.S. President George Bush.<br />
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The panel is filled with people who have been pushing George Bush’s agenda in Canada for years, such as Pamela Wallin, who supported missile defence when she was Canada's Consul General in New York.<br />
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Two leaders of the arms industry join Manley and Wallin: Derek Burney and Paul Tellier, who headed Canada's biggest military contractors, CAE and Bombardier, respectively. Tacked on is former Mulroney Cabinet minister Jake Epp...READ ARTICLE @ <a href="http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7117">http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7117</a>
on of our elected. I subscribe to COAT and this last edition has more incredibly
disturbing research on our involvement in Haiti.
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"The most sustainable product is the one you never bought in the first place."
Alex Steffan