Stephen Harper and Perogies
So, uh, here’s a bit of concerning news for those of you who happen to be of the Canadian persuasion and for those of you considering Canada as a backup plan come the (albeit incredibly slight because I believe in God and His boundless mercy) possibility of a Palin presidency. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, pictured here moments before strangling the kitten to death, has decided to prorogue parliament until early March amidst the highly controversial investigation regarding the Canadian government’s involvement in the torture of Afghan detainees as well as the upcoming Vancouver winter Olympics. This is the second dismissal of parliament, under Harper, in less than a year.
Undoubtedly it seems as though Harper is seeking to derail international attention from the investigation as the countdown to the Olympics becomes shorter. But is this really the case? Is the Conservative minority government seeking dismissal of parliament for sole reasons of deflecting attention from the hot mess it has found itself in, or are there other factors playing in?
John Ivison of the National Post weighs in:
While Mr. Harper may harbour aspirations of despotism, he remains, alas for him, the head of a minority government. The second prorogation in little over a year is unusual and, in large measure, unnecessary. But it is going too far to claim it is a debasement of democracy. There is a budget scheduled for March 4 and, if the opposition parties feel the Conservative government is acting undemocratically, they can bring it down. Noticeably, Mr. Goodale clammed up when he was asked if the Liberals would give vent to their outrage by voting against the budget.
There’s no doubt the government could do without the detainee issue blowing up again during the Olympics but this did not drive the decision to prorogue. For one, the government was already boycotting special committee hearings into the treatment of detainees; for another, polls suggest that half of Canadians have never heard of the controversy and those that have heard about it, don’t care (a new Nanos poll yesterday had the Conservatives nine points ahead of the Liberals).
There appear to have been two more serious considerations that persuaded the Prime Minister it was worth killing 32 of the 63 bills his government introduced in the last session (the other 31 have passed into law already).
Firstly, fury at the unelected Liberal Senate was not faux outrage. Mr. Harper was particularly upset when the Senate amended the government’s consumer protection legislation, which had received unanimous consent in the House of
Commons. The Conservatives are set to become the largest party in the Senate with the appointment of five new senators early in the new year, yet the Liberals would still have dominated the committee structure. This would have allowed Grit senators to continue to bog down government legislation for months on end. Instead, prorogation will mean that those committees are reconstituted to more closely reflect the make-up of the Senate. For the first time since he came to power, Mr. Harper will have a plurality in both chambers of Parliament and in the committee rooms.
Secondly, the Conservatives know that they need to change gears and prepare for a time when their popularity is not bolstered by their MPs running around the country handing over giant cheques. A hard rain is going to fall for the government when their economic action plan runs out of funding in March 2011. Mr. Goodale is on firmer ground in his assessment that the Tories’ legislative agenda is running on fumes. By all accounts, the folder containing all the good ideas about how to return to a balanced budget is thinner than a hermit’s address book.
Government sources say a report the Conservatives may chop public sector pension plans to save money is merely “bureaucratic blue sky thinking that has not reached a political level yet”. But the fact that the bureaucracy is preparing those kinds of documents suggests that restraint measures are on the agenda for the medium term.
Officials say the Prime Minister will use the extended break to create a “policy and ideas focused environment”, with ministers being issued new mandate letters and cabinet committees meeting regularly to discuss ideas that could be included in the Speech from the Throne when Parliament returns on March 3.
Whatever the case may be, this is about as exciting as things get in the country outside Hockey Night in Canada.
