The Collective Wisdom Of Canadians

As polls show a softening support for Harper’s conservatives it may well be Canadians are once again resorting to our collective wisdom and we are heading toward another minority government. As one Globe and Mail reader commented “We cannot afford another minority government.” This reader is dead wrong as under the circumstances we have no other option.

First of all we should not make the silly assumption that minority governments are necessarily bad. Canada has had eleven of them, some good, and some bad.

Where Lester Pearson’s minority Liberal government brought in some of Canada’s most important social legislation; Jean Chretien’s Liberal majorities systematically gutted social programs with finance minister Paul Martin presiding. 

Secondly, we should remind ourselves that there are many countries around the world that are governed by minority/ coalition governments on an ongoing basis and they really do work. They do though require a mature commitment on the part of politicians as they must practice such noble skills as compromise, consensus building, moderation and a collegial approach to working with other parties in the coalition.

Canada’s political elite can no longer make the assumption that majority government is their entitlement and they should start developing the necessary mindset and skills to work collegially with other parties to bring about effective government.

Stephen Harper has called Parliament “dysfunctional” but this has more to do with his managerial skills and attitude towards Parliament. Minority government requires some sophisticated political skills and if he wants to hang around he should get used to the idea a majority is beyond his grasp -largely because Canadians are offended by his strident partisanship.

Parliament does become dysfunctional mainly in majority situations. Going back to the time of Pierre Trudeau, power and decision making has been increasingly concentrated in the PMO. With a majority government Parliament merely becomes a rubber stamp for decrees issued from the PMO.

Under Harper this has been even more so; suffering a severe shortage of political talent for key cabinet posts, having a controlling nature and being “handicapped” with a minority the PMO has become an airless bunker.

A minority government actually serves to revitalize and make Parliament relevant as parties do indeed have to water their wine and take a more measured and less partisan approach to legislation.  

Canadians have good reason to be distrustful of majority governments as both successive Liberal and Conservative governments have used majorities to radically alter the country over the past few decades in the form of:

-        massive corporate tax cuts

-        the end of universal benefits for children

-        repeated attacks on Old Age Security benefits

-        deep cuts for health, education and social assistance

-        removal of federal support for affordable housing

-        gutting of unemployment insurance

-        off loading of training and welfare to the provinces

-        the NAFTA

-        harmonization to US standards in health, the environment, national security and military security

-        North American Union

Thanks to our two national parties Canada has been suffering incremental losses of sovereignty for the past forty years. Our political elites are contemptuous of the public good and the concept of Canada as an independent country. They cannot grasp the simple concept that being Canadian is not automatically anti-American; nor can they distinguish between friendship and servitude in Canada –US relations. They are dumbstruck by what they see as the infallibility of the American empire which is proving to be very fallible. 

Harper’s perverse contempt allows him to want to lead a majority government in a country he does not love or believe in as expressed in a speech in June 1997 at a Montreal meeting of the Council for National Policy, a right wing US think tank:  

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20051213/elxn_harper_speech_text_051214/20051214/

At a time in his life when he was outside active politics and he assumed his speech would not have wide distribution he mocks and belittles Canada to a foreign audience in a vindictive, sarcastic and highly partisan manner.

It is true in both Canada and the United States the public good is being abandoned for the sake of the corporate good. Whether we are dealing with Republicans, Democrats, Liberals or Conservatives they have blended into bipartisanship, paying lip service to the public good but in service to the corporate good.  As the social welfare state sinks out of sight the corporate welfare state emerges full in full bloom.

The US government is now spending tens of billions of dollars bailing out Wall Street profiteers wallowing in their greed, unethical behavior and the utter lack of self-regulation which they promised if government stood back from regulating them.     

These events are disastrous for Harper as the Republican style of conservatism he wants to import to Canada is coming apart at the seams for all to see. This financial meltdown came about because of deregulation and privatization-two of the central tenets of neoconservatism, neoliberalism and the market driven economy.          

With our political parties contemptuous of the public good and their first loyalty being to the corporate good Canadians face an imposing challenge. One of the few weapons we have at our disposal is to continue sending minority governments to Ottawa; to continue exercising our collective wisdom and at least slowing down the devolution of the country.   

Our political elites require remedial education, upgrading and a new focus. They should be sent back to Ottawa reprimanded, told to get down to business, to show greater respect for the Canadian electorate and to get back to basics. Such basics include fixed term elections (as promised) and a workable system of proportionate representation. Most important, it is time to recalibrate their loyalties and desist from their treasonable behavior.