To say that I'm vastly unimpressed with the political bickering going on in Ottawa would be more of an understatement than "Steven Harper's hair looks like a child's dead hamster." While I have no respect for a Liberal Government scrambling to do everything it can to save itself in the wake of gross mismanagement, I have even less respect (although that seems mathematically impossible) for a Conservative Opposition attempting to cash in on the political crisis by crippling the House of Commons in a bid to bring down a democratically elected government less than a quarter into its full term. My apologies for the long sentence.
A lot of things have struck me lately about this Conservative Caucus:
-The sudden determination to bring down the government the same week that polls showed them with a slight lead over the liberals.
-The continued determination to bring down the government despite the fact the polls have swung back in favour of the liberals.
-The determination by Steven Harper that the Conservative Caucus is unanimous in its intent to force a vote of non-confidence as soon as possible despite news reports that members of the Conservative Caucus did not want a spring election because they didn't not have the support of their constituents.
-The determination of Steven Harper and other Conservatives that the Liberals are willing to do anything to stay in power, despite the their own willingness to do anything to gain power.
Steven Harper's comment that the deal Paul Martin made with Jack Layton was a "deal with the devil," is interesting considering the Conservative Party was created in a Harper deal with Peter McKay who became leader of the now defunct Progressive Conservative Party only after promising publicly that he would not make any deal to merge the two parties.
-The Conservative's willingness to align themselves with the Bloc Quebecois. It's generally considered bad form for federalists to work so hand-in-hand with the Bloc. Also interesting here is that this alliance is forged not between politically similar entities like the NDP and the Liberals, but between the Party farthest to the right, the Conservatives, and the Party farthest to the Left, the Bloc.
The craziest thing yet seems to be the insistence by Conservative back-bencher Inky Mark that a Liberal has offered him an Ambassadorship in exchange for giving up his Parliament seat despite his refusal to say which Liberal offered him the position. A whole new set of insanity started when Liberal Cabinet member Reg Alcock denied the claim stating that any such offer would have been made to someone "a little higher up the gene pool." At first, Mr. Mark dismissed the comment as a "schoolyard taunt." Then the next day he appeared with members of the Conservative Party to demand an apology on the grounds that the comment was a racial slur, seeing as how Mr. Mark is Chinese. Despite that an apology was made by Mr. Alcock I think it can be understood that the comment was not a racial slur but a suggestion that Mr. Mark is either an Idiot (which I believe to be true) or more likely, Mr. Alcock was probably referring to the fact that Mr. Mark is a politically unimportant person. In an interesting turn, the Liberals have suggested that in reality, Mr. Mark has been actively contacting Liberals asking for a position... Check the story here
So in the end, whatever backhanded, slimy, despicable things the Liberals have done, the Conservatives have done too, either now, or during their last stint in power under PM Mulroney. I feel I have little choice but to support the Liberal Party in any election forced by a non-confidence vote, even if it were to be supported by the NDP. I simply fail to see how any non-confidence motion can be accepted in a democratic system without the support of a large majority of the people.
Any election held this year will have one of the following outcomes, another Liberal minority, or a Conservative minority. In the event a Liberal minority is re-elected after a non-confidence vote, not only will the Conservatives have egg all over their faces, nothing will change in Parliament with political squabbling over corruption. If the Conservatives win a minority, they will have no allies in Parliament and will not be able to pass any of the legislation they hold most dear. Eventually they will fall on a vote of non-confidence brining in yet another Liberal government. This second option explains exactly why the Bloc Quebecois would work with their arch-rivals the Conservatives. The entire stated purpose of the Bloc is to work at the federal level to the benefit of Quebec, but in reality it also has the job as a separatist party to de-stabilize federal government. A series of weak and ineffective governments, rising and falling in succession plays into the hands of those trying to build support for a referendum on independence in Quebec.
My belief here is simple, an arrogant, corrupt government is better than an ineffective government. This doesn't mean we need to return to the days of unquestioned Liberal majorities, a minority government can get a lot done, if only its members are willing to work together for the best of the people. My suggestion here is to look to the European model of coalition building. We should also end our first past the poll election system with a system of listed choices, ie. an election ballot would allow you to rank the options rather than choose only one. This way, we could have instant run-off polls.
An example would be me writing 1 beside the NDP choice, 2 beside the Liberal choice, and leaving the Conservative choice blank if those were my three choices. There would be a first round of ballot counting based only on the first choice, then the choice to receive the least votes would be removed and a second count would be conducted using the second choice on the ballots who's first choice received the least votes in the first round. I'm probably not describing that very well, but essentially, by using this method with as many rounds as necessary based on the number of choices on the ballot, it is ensured that every member of Parliament is elected with the majority of votes, rather than just the most votes.
I'm tired now, so I'm off to bed. I guess I'll see what crazy things happen in Ottawa tomorrow soon enough.
Keep on Trangling,
Anthony Pereira
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