- What would Pierre Trudeau say? He stopped the FLQ dead
in its tracks only to have the nation's future now toyed with by selfish,
angry children.
-
- This is a terrible time to force an election. I don't
say this because it's only been a year since an election. I don't say this
because another election will cost as much or more than the sponsorship
scandal. And I don't say this because an election can only give us another
minority government. The forces of separatism are more buoyant than they
have been for years. Jean Charest's conservative policies have made the
Quebec Liberals very unpopular, and the Parti Québécois waits
to resume power. The backlash in Quebec against the federal Liberals means
the nihilistic Bloc Québécois will take even more seats.
-
- One hopes Stephen Harper will show statesmanship in not
forcing a new election, but the hope is slim. His party, though it has
virtually no chance of winning a seat in Quebec, naturally wants to be
christened by even a brief assumption of power. Peter MacKay, number-two
man in the party, answers questions about his past broken promises with
a description of politics as a "blood sport," and judging from
the language he uses during Question Period, he very much means it.
-
- The Conservatives have no critical priorities, no desperately
wished-for program, but they have the opportunity to exploit an unpleasant
situation for a possible minority government. In doing this they would
be upsetting a lot of important initiatives now underway. They would be
appealing to people's unhappiness over a scandal where all the information
has not yet even been collected. They would be trying to remove a government
that has done everything anyone could expect from government in setting
things right. Judge the meaning of an election called under those circumstances.
And judge, too, the fact that Stephen Harper's Quebec lieutenant effectively
must be Gilles Duceppe.
-
- Duceppe is an almost asinine figure, a man with such
a checkered political history that words about principles sound bizarre
coming from his mouth. The Bloc Québécois, a bizarre separatist
party acting in the federal arena where it can never achieve its objectives,
basically serves as a place to park votes when people in Quebec are angry
or frustrated as they are now. That is, except for the genuine opportunity
a Conservative minority government would offer the Bloc to extract serious
favours for its support. Now there's a principled arrangement: the Conservatives
assisting separatism in order to gain power.
-
- I do love the Conservative claim to moral high ground
in the current scandal. This is, after all, the party of Grant Devine,
a premier who had ministers sent to prison for fraud and who to this day
sounds like a weasel trying to explain away what happened. This is the
party of wife-murderer Colin Thatcher. This is the party of Brian Mulroney,
whose immense Airbus scandal remains successfully buried. This is the party
of Stockwell Day whose unique blend of ignorance and mouth cost a provincial
government the best part of a million dollars defending him before he had
the grace to apologize. This is the party of Peter MacKay, a man whose
word goes about as far as the tiny distance between his eyes.
-
- Danny Williams set a fine example for Canadians by taking
down the nation's flag all over the Newfoundland because he didn't get
quite the deal on revenue-sharing he thought he deserved. What else could
you compare Danny's behaviour to except a child who bawls in the store
to embarrass its mother into buying something? Taking down the flag of
course has more serious implications than just bawling or holding your
breath until you turn blue. It is damaging to people's sense of national
identity and purpose.
-
- I am not a defender of America's civic religion around
its flag, something closer in spirit to brown-shirt demonstrations than
pride in rights and freedoms, but, still, flags do mean something. Perhaps
rather I should say Canada means something, something a bit more than getting
just the financial deal you want. Canada is a genuinely decent country,
a peaceful place, a place that does not make enemies in the world, a place
where discrimination and hatred are about as minimal as you will find anywhere.
The flag is a symbol for these qualities, not a symbol for a particular
federal party or a particular financial arrangement. A political leader
who uses it for a stunt deserves contempt and owes the nation an apology.
Danny largely escaped the price of his ridiculous and destructive behaviour
because people do have a certain expectation and tolerance for quaint ways
in Newfoundland.
-
- Ironically, and some would hold with considerable justice,
an election would prevent Danny's special concession from being legislated.
If that were the only consequence of an election at this time, it might
not be bad.
-
- Danny's stupid behaviour quickly drew the attention of
Dalton McGuinty sniffing around for money. Dalton then stumbled upon the
existence of a mysterious and monstrous gap in Ontario's financial arrangements
with Ottawa. Evidently, Dalton was unaware of the fact that Ontario pays
out more than it receives over the course of his considerable political
career, just as he was unaware that Ontario was running a substantial deficit
during the last election campaign.
-
- Dalton's slogans about a "$23 billion gap"
and a "$5 billion down payment" are as insidious, and potentially
as destructive, as the poorly-defined promises of separatist leaders in
Quebec. Not that Dalton is as effective a speaker. He is not, coming off
rather like a gangly door-to-door salesman in love with the sound of his
adenoidal voice.
-
- No reasonable person would argue with Dalton's raising
focused issues with the national government over aspects of equalization
financing. There may well be aspects of immigration or transportation or
other areas where Ontario is today short-changed because the variables
in any established formula become stressed by changing circumstances over
time. Discussing such matters would simply be part of his job as premier.
-
- But that is not what Dalton is doing. Instead he keeps
repeating cheap slogans that question the basic idea of sharing in the
Canadian Confederation. Dalton has said he is not questioning the general
principle, but the effect upon the public of his advertising slogans can
only reduce public respect for traditional Canadian arrangements. That's
precisely how advertising and propaganda work.
-
- I won't dwell on Ralph Klein's being re-elected a while
back in Alberta, his lifetime political achievement being holding office
when oil prices exploded. For some mysterious reason people in Alberta
are comfortable with this argumentative, unpleasant man who all too often
behaves as though he'd just emptied a pitcher of martinis at the Petroleum
club. I'll only mention that in looking at the Alberta government Internet
site recently, I discovered Klein listing himself under the heading, the
Executive Branch. I think that pretty much sums up his understanding of
parliamentary government and perhaps says a word about his dreams.
-
- Which brings us back to Stephen Harper. Can he rise above
Ralph Klein's bar-room vision of Canada? Can he show the statesmanship
and decency we knew from Joe Clark? Can he contribute genuinely to Canada's
precious integrity? Few of our contemporary politicians seem even slightly
capable of passing such a test.
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