No i in Team:

Making minority government work

 

es Left Overs )

N Iain Reeve, OP Columnist

hile it was tempting in this
\ \ issue to talk about the miracu-
lous survival of the Liberal

government, the defection of Belinda
Stronach, the impressive showing by the
NDP in the provincial election, or the
implications of the STV vote, I prefer to
look to the future. As the federal Liberals
have managed to survive, for the summer
at least, and as future attempts at toppling
the government seem unlikely in light of

 

the recent by-election, parliament is going
to be attempting to do something that it
has not yet done effectively: function.

I was pleased to see the government
survive—if for no other reason than that
I believe it has not been given a reason-
able chance to fulfill its purpose of
serving the Canadian people. Something
that has been forgotten by every party at
one point or another is that parliament is
there to enact policy to further the well-
being of Canada, not to advance the polit-
ical agendas and egos of Mr. Layton, Mr.
Harper, Mr. Duceppe, or Mr. Martin.
While one can never expect Mr. Duceppe
to do much to further the good of
Canada, the party’s other leaders should
be ashamed of themselves. While one
may detect a note of authenticity in Paul
Martin’s desire to wait to hear the full
Gomery report before calling an election
so Canadians can make a reasoned and
non-hasty decision, waiting no doubt bol-
sters the chances of Liberal survival in a
winter election. Meanwhile, the NDP has
done its own fair share of high profile
maneuvering, most notably the budget
deal. While many, especially in the
Conservative camp, have called this irre-
sponsible dealing on the part of the two
parties, another way of looking at it is as
compromise and deal making, something
necessary in a minority government,
something Conservatives fail to under-
stand.

8 | www.theotherpress.ca

It’s hard to deny that the most obtru-
sive party in this parliament has been the
Conservatives. Of course, this only start-
ed after poor press for the Liberals drove
up Conservative approval ratings. They
suddenly turned from supporting a budg-
et with considerable concessions made to
get them on board, to trying to force an
election at any cost.

The tactics used were downright
deplorable. They dragged testimony from
witnesses such as Chuck Guite into ques-
tion period as gospel truth, when only a
month before, they were saying that such
witnesses could not be trusted. They
accused Paul Martin of pushing the budg-
et vote back in hopes that the health of
their ill members would fail, when they
knew full well tradition would see a
Liberal sit out for every Conservative not
present in the house due to illness, some-
thing which did happen the day of the
budget votes. Worst of ll, the
Conservatives closed the doors of parlia-
ment for claiming the
government was illegitimate. I may be

three days,

crazy, but my definition of legitimacy
tends to revolve around the will of the
Canadian people as determined by an
election, not the moral judgments of
Stephen Harper.

I think the most indicative thing the
Conservatives have done over the past
month was to call the NDP-Liberal budg-
et arrangement a back-room deal. Big
words coming from a party that can only
find allies with separatists who seek noth-
ing more than the failure of the image of
federalism. Perhaps they would have been
happier with the budget had they contin-
ued their support for it. The NDP deal is,
more or less, the Conservatives’ fault. The
labeling of a mutual agreement to pass a
budget as a back-room deal shows that
the Conservatives are more concerned
with forming government than they are
with doing what is best for Canada and
accepting their role as an opposition party,
as elected by the Canadian people.

Other so called back-room deals in
Canada’s history of minority govern-
ments include universal health care,
Canada Pension Plan, student loans, and
other programs instituted in five years of
coalition between Pearson’s Liberals and
Douglas’ NDP in the ’60s. So you may
choose to believe Conservatives who call
minority governments dysfunctional, or
you may choose to look at them as unique
situations that force parties to actually
cooperate on legislation rather then letting

 

 

one party dictate the agenda for four or
five years. Some of the best legislation in
Canadian history came out of cooperative
minority governments that balanced the
ideas of all parties, and thus all Canadians,
not just those fortunate enough to have
voted for the ruling party.

The Conservatives would do well to
remember this should they win the next
election. They will certainly find little
cooperation from the NDP and Liberals
after the obtrusion they caused in this par-
liament. They will quickly see the Bloc
harder to work with when their goal is not

governmental collapse, since the two par-
ties diverge significantly on policy. That is,
unless the Liberals and NDP are gracious
enough to recognize the job of parlia-
ment and cooperate with a party that
refused to do the same for them. I suspect
they will if it comes to that.

I hope parliament convenes after the
break with cooperation on their mind.
Otherwise, this risks becoming one of the
worst governments in Canadians history,
something that—especially in a minority
situation—teflects poorly on every mem-
ber in the house.

 

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