Back on October 14, Canadians went to the polls and re-elected a minority Conservative government. [For you non-Canadians, the Conservatives are a lot like the US Republicans, but without the decency and the social conscience.]  

The Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, has often been called ‘Bush-Lite’ although that actually awards both of them more intelligence than they deserve. But his most recent political fumble makes it seem that the man is barely capable of tying his own shoes. 

In the Canadian parliamentary system, there are multiple parties. If a party takes more than half the available seats, then it enjoys a majority government and often acts in whatever way strikes its fancy. But with multiple parties, obtaining a majority is by no means an easy feat. Canadians have diverse political views, and it is quite common for us to end up with a minority situation.  

That’s not all bad – in fact, our most progressive legislation has generally come during periods of minority rule, where the parties needed to get along with each other for anything to work at all. During the minority government of Lester Pearson (Canada’s only Nobel Peace Prize winner), we got Medicare and a raft of other social benefit schemes which constitute the primary difference between us and our less gentle neighbours to the south. 

Throughout the first iteration of Harper’s minority government, he conducted himself as though he had a majority. He found the opposition parties in some disarray and steam-rolled over them, daring them to defeat his government. He was quite certain they were not in any financial position to go back to the electorate again, so he acted as though he had a majority. 

[Note that ‘majority’ is measured by the number of seats, not votes. In fact, Harper’s party actually obtained only slightly more than 20% of the available votes, or about 37% of the votes cast. And unlike the United States, we do not directly elect our prime minister. The PM is usually (although doesn’t have to be) the leader of the party with the greatest number of seats. So actually, Harper became prime minister even though he personally received about 38,000 votes out of a country with 21 million voters – you can see the evidence of democracy there, can’t you?] 

In the October 14 election, Harper’s seat count was increased – but is still not sufficient to give him a majority. And that’s when the trouble began. 

Last week, Harper’s Minister of Finance issued what is called an ‘economic update’. By the way, it must be said that NONE of Harper’s party members or ministers even blow their noses unless they’ve cleared it first with the boss. So this was really Harper’s economic update. An update is just a statement of where things are at, and where the government thinks it wants to head – it is not the same thing as a budget. But it’s still pretty important for us. 

Last week’s update contained several measures that sparked immediate outrage from many quarters. Among other goofs, it stated that the right to strike would be suspended for government employees (contrary to the law and signed collective agreements); it called for the stripping of financing from political parties (which would have hurt every party except Harper’s own); it failed to address any measures to deal with the economic crisis that faces the entire planet (including the brutal beating being taken by Canada’s three largest economic sectors: forestry, mining, and automotive).  

According to the government’s economic update, we’re cool – nothing to worry about. Just watch those dollars, folks (there is a reason our dollar is called the ‘loonie’), and everything will work out fine. Never mind that our largest customer (the United States, who buys about 80% of what we produce) is broke, somehow we’ll be okay. 

Although it is certain the opposition parties were furious over the stripping of financing, it was the failure to acknowledge the economic times that put them over the edge. And now they are in the process of trying something really creative: They have struck a deal amongst themselves to kick Harper out of office, and install a coalition government. As bizarre as that would sound to a US audience, it is certainly a perfectly legal outcome in many countries – including Canada. It hasn’t ever happened here, but there’s a pretty good chance it might within the next few weeks. This is all very exciting for those of us who bemoan the sedate and boring nature of Canadian politics. 

Harper is categorizing all the machinations of the opposition parties as an attempted ‘coup d’état’, and trying to pretend to his credulous power base that this is all somehow illegal. It isn’t. It is exactly what the Canadian parliamentary system is constructed to do – that is, toss out a government that clearly has lost the confidence of the nation. In fact, Harper must have a little egg on his face right now since it was revealed over the weekend that a move like this is exactly what he tried to do himself in 2004, when he was in opposition. 

Even if the move by the opposition to send this turkey packing doesn’t succeed, it is clear that Harper is chastened. Within his own party there are calls for his head – this is a crisis that didn’t need to arise, and seems to have been constructed out of Harper’s love for Machiavellian strategy.  

At this time in Canadian political life, and in the current economic climate, Harper has shown himself to be a complete doofus – something that many of us have known for a long time. But it’s all out there now for even the politically naïve to see. Even if his government doesn’t collapse, if it somehow survives this assault from the opposition, it is probably a safe bet that Harper’s days are numbered. No one will miss him.

© Copyright 2008 by AxisofLogic.com

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Paul Richard Harris is an Axis of Logic editor and columnist, based in Canada.  He can be reached at paul@axisoflogic.com

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