Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

The Commons: And then it got worse

by Aaron Wherry on Tuesday, December 2, 2008 5:36pm - 116 Comments

And then it got worse

The Scene. In a curious and startling display of brinksmanship, Stephane Dion opened Question Period with a pop quiz.

“Mr. Speaker,” he said, “let me read the following statement: ‘The whole principle of our democracy is the government is supposed to be able to face the House of Commons any day on a vote. This government now has the deliberate policy of avoiding a vote. This is a violation of the fundamental constitutional principles of our democracy.’ Can the Prime Minister inform the House who said these words?”

Stephen Harper could not. Or at least would not.

“Mr. Speaker, the highest principle of Canadian democracy is that if one wants to be Prime Minister one gets one’s mandate from the Canadian people and not from Quebec separatists,” he yelled.

Apparently having read his reviews, the Prime Minister was fevered this day. Apparently having noticed the press gallery noticing them, the Conservative caucus snapped immediately to attention, cheering loud.

“This deal that the leader of the Liberal Party has made with the separatists,” Mr. Harper continued, “is a betrayal of the voters of this country, a betrayal of the best interests of our economy, a betrayal of the best interests of our country and we will fight it with every means that we have.”

Back the government members sprang up. Watching from above, the Prime Minister’s aides cheered and pumped their fists. This earned a quick rebuke from Hill security, no such expressions of enthusiasm permitted in the galleries.

Without similar law enforcement, all was soon lost in the arena below. What followed was equally captivating, stunning, dispiriting and horrid. Democracy thrown to the hyenas.

“Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister did not answer my question,” Dion rightly noted. “Let me help him. He himself spoke these words on May 3, 2005, as leader of the opposition.”

Mr. Harper did not appear chastened, pointing furiously into the ground in front of him to punctuate his words.

“From Macdonald and Laurier to Diefenbaker and Trudeau, Liberals and Conservatives have often disagreed,” the Prime Minister shot back, “but there is one thing we should never disagree on and the Leader of the Liberal Party is betraying the best interests of the best traditions of his own party if he thinks he can make a deal to govern.”

The Conservative benches, up again, chanted “shame.”

“Mr. Speaker, every member of the House has received a mandate from the Canadian people to deliver a government that will face the economic crisis,” responded Mr. Dion, briefly outlining the basic parameters of our democratic system. “The Prime Minister has failed. The Prime Minister does not have the support of the House any more. Will he allow a vote to test if he has really the confidence of the House as it must be in a parliamentary democracy?”

Upping the ante, Mr. Dion offered the rare two-handed point.

“Mr. Speaker, not a single member of the House, not even a member of the Bloc, received a mandate to have a government in which the separatists would be part of the coalition,” Harper shot back, putting forward his own reading of the rules. “If the leader of the opposition thinks he has support for this, he should have the confidence to take this to the people of Canada who will reject it.”

“Mr. Speaker, it is too bad that the noise these Conservatives make is a whole lot more than the voting power they command in this House,” reprimanded Liberal John McCallum.

The government’s Vic Toews singled out members of the Liberal frontbench and called them out as “traitors.” Peter Van Loan, the man responsible for protecting us from Osama bin Laden, mugged for the press gallery and loudly deemed Dion a “new small man of Confederation.” During one of several dozen standing ovations, James Moore swaggered to the edge of the aisle, just enough to look good and mad without having to actually cross the aisle and engage the other side in fisticuffs.

“Honestly,” sighed Speaker Peter Miliken, “honourable members two weeks ago today were saying we needed more order in the House.”

Gilles Duceppe stood and reminded Mr. Harper of how the two had cooperated so nicely in the past. The Bloc leader sounded hurt.

Jack Layton tried once more to plead the case of the Parliamentary system. “Mr. Speaker, what I said during the election and have said for years and have put into practice is that I am ready to work with other parties in the House, and we have evidenced that with all parties here,” he reviewed. “It is clear that the Prime Minister does not understand that. He has been unwilling to work with other parties, and that is why he has lost the confidence of the House. That is what is happening here. He used to say that the Prime Minister had a moral obligation to respect the will of the House. He is refusing to allow a vote. He knows full well he has lost the confidence. When will he recognize that fact and turn over power.”

Mr. Harper was quick to his feet. “Mr. Speaker, yesterday, as part of the culmination of the machinations of the leader of the NDP, we had these three parties together forming this agreement, signing a document, and they would not even have the Canadian flag behind them. They had to be photographed without it. They had to be photographed without it because a member of their coalition does not even believe in the country.”

Unfortunately for the Prime Minister, this was untrue.

The formal announcement of a prospective coalition government took place in the Reading Room, one of the large committee rooms off the main hall in Parliament’s Centre Block. In that room, on the night of February 3, 1916, a fire broke out, the resulting inferno destroying nearly all of Parliament’s signature house. Seven people died in the blaze. A plaque memorializing the one MP who perished, Liberal Bowman Brown Law, currently hangs just down the hall.

Such is the stuff of ancient history, and perhaps perspective. Yesterday, the three opposition leaders sat behind a table on a small riser in that same room and explained their intentions. Behind them stood the flags of each province and territory. On each side of that row of flags, a Canadian flag.

And so having wrapped himself tightly in the Maple Leaf, Stephen Harper had promptly soiled himself.

Four mesmerizing rounds between Messrs Dion and Harper followed, all pretence of questions and answers forgotten. Two men who loathe each other so deeply debating nothing less than the sanctity and purpose of this nation.

Some time later, the Speaker called an end to the day. It is now impossible to say who is winning.

The Stats. Government, 14 questions. The economy, 12 questions. Arts funding, three questions. Equity and Thailand, two questions each. The environment, one question.

Stephen Harper, 11 answers. Jim Flaherty, six answers. James Moore, three answers. Christian Paradis, Diane Finley, Denis Lebel, Lawrence Cannon and Lisa Raitt, two answers each. Vic Toews, Helena Guergis, Jim Prentice and Rona Ambrose, one answer each.

More by Aaron Wherry

bob adamson

Bottom line: we have created a disfunctional Parliament because of the record of ongoing and extreme partisanship by the Prime Minister and some of his associates. An early election is not going to resolve this problem because the Liberal Party needs to reorganize and complete its leadership renewal before it can truly be a viable alternative to the Conservatives. A Conservative minority or majority victory, if achieved only because of weakness of the other parties, will not improve either the working of Parliament or the governance of Canada. This would be a disservice to the Conservatives as well as the other parties and the country. Further, the country does not want another election so closely following the last one. It follows that any attempt, based on the current composition of the House, to either reconstitute the Conservative cabinet under a new leader (something that is not currently under practical consideration) or create a viable alternative from the opposition ranks is to be welcomed as a means to govern Canada while both the Liberals and Conservatives can each get their act together. It is in that context that the proposed coalition government is to be welcomed. Why should we assume that Dion and the others can not rise to the occasion or that the Bloc will have a sinister command of the governance of the country? Those involved know that much will be expected of them and that the people, including Bloc supporters, will be unforgiving if the economic wellbeing of the country is threatened by regional bickering within the new government. We need to move on from the current deadlock and a coalition, whether it lasts nine or thirty months, is a more viable step at this time (transitional though it may be) than either a premature election or the status quo. Our task as citizens is to support the best options actually available, not reject options because they are not perfect or problem free.
Stephen

>It will do Iggy a lot of good to put some distance between himself and this ill-considered arrangement.

Which is what he’s already doing, and which is very smart of him to do.

Of course, it’s very likely that he’s worked this play out with Dion in advance as a contingency – if this bombs and he was against it, he comes out of it smelling like a rose. If it works, no one will remember that he was against it. C’mon, people, don’t take everything at face value – this is politics, after all. You have to dig a bit deeper.
kody

How interesting that those on the left are so convinced of their position,

yet so strident that their position not actually be put to the voting public.

Jonah Goldberg’s “Liberal Fascism” was one of the most prescient books of our day.
TJ Cook

kody: “Jonah Goldberg’s “Liberal Fascism” was one of the most prescient books of our day.”

Don’t go changing baby, you’re freakin’ classic.

Hey jwl: kody agrees with you that Jonah Goldberg is a genius! Congratulations on the company you keep.
kody

There’s a reason why Dion promised the public that he would NOT make a coalition, during the last election.

It’s the same reason the Liberals will fight to their political deaths to stop Canadians from deciding for themselves this time around.

Canadians WILL have their say. It’s only a matter of time.

Watch the rallies on Saturday (if the locker room discussion I was in today from otherwise apolitical “jock” types is any indication, the rallies will be impressive indeed. I’ve never seen such an angry discussion about politics.
Stephen B

It seems to me there is a fairly good chance that Harper will succeed in getting the G-G to prorogue and will then spend the next month or more on attack ads and attempts to get persuadable Liberal MPs to bail out of the coalition before there is a nonconfidence vote.
sf

The socialist-separatist dion-bots know that if this coalition goes to a vote it will be shot down by the voters.
Stevie Doesn’t Like it. A lot.

Face it Con Trolls. Steve Harper is poison to democracy. This blind vicious partisan nastiness you freaks imported from down south has tainted the the political atmosphere. You are a minority in parliment. Talk about facism. Talkj a g-d look in the mirror.

Pure poison.
Stephen B

The word always used to be “brinkmanship”. these days I’m hearing “brinksmanship” everywhere, and that’s what it says in the phot caption that accompanies this post.
DW Green

I have a perspective here, but will hold it in abeyance for now. What I feel most moved to say is this: many of the people commenting here – on both sides of this political divide – seem to show that they are intelligent, but the level of discussion has really fallen.

I don’t feel that responding to expressions of anger or insults by returning a volley of the same helps one’s argument whatsoever. Folks, if you have a point to make, try doing so using your intelligence and wit!

I’ll take a wild guess and imagine that the reason Macleans opened a comments section on its site was to encourage development of a collective wisdom out of the varied viewpoints of its readers. If I’m one of the writers or editors here, I’m looking at this, shaking my head and telling myself that I’m not getting what I had hoped.
George Pringle

The Govt House Leader should reschedule the Opposition Day until after the Christmas to allow all the MPs to hear from their constituents. I believe that the Liberal and ND MPs will have a big bucket of cold water thrown on their fiery lust for power.

On 27 Jan, the Finance Minister will present a budget and if the Opposition want to vote against an actual policy direction and can present their alternative openly and honestly instead of just bombastic rhetoric, then they have the opportunity to vote against the budget during second reading.

The Opposition’s antics and bringing of the separatist party into the actual Government will not go unpunished in the next election when ever it comes. Did you notice the drop in the stock market due to your actions?
Ian

Hey anybody else up on the apparent violation of the conservatives inregards to SEC 184(1) of the Canadian criminal code. Recording conversations without someones knowledge or consent is illegal in Canada folks. Instead of rallying against the guy completely within his rights to do what he is doing (Dion and the coalition) let’s start rallying against the guy breaking Canada’s laws (Harper and the conservatives). I refuse to let this one just die like all of the other grossly immoral things Harper and his gang have done (bribing a dying man; election fraud).
MM

Thanks for bringing that back up Ian, very true!!
Brad Sallows

The NDP have set out to pursue the matter. Presumably if something illegal was done, charges will be laid. Meanwhile, it’s very helpful to Canada’s interests to know what the parties are doing in their interests. The more we know, the better informed will be our votes in the next election.
http://ragingranter.blogspot.com Raging Ranter

What baffles me, after watching Dion’s temper tantrums today (he doesn’t even try to hide them anymore) why anyone would support a coalition lead by that buffoon. And, if politics is indeed the only motivation, why the Conservatives would ever try to prevent such a coalition from taking power. I can’t think of a better campaign theme than “for the last 6 months, this country has been lead by these three gibbons” (move to a shot of Dion, Layton and Duceppe).
Erin Weary

HEY TEAM COALITION–

Anyone want to stand up and accuse Elizabeth May of being too stupid to understand, of needing a basic civics lesson, of wanting to live in America, etc. She seems to be under the impression that she got a million votes. Of course, as we all know, that’s ridiculous–in Canada, we elect MPs not parties or leaders. Anyone? I promise to pass the message on to her.

(http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20081202/dion_may_081202/20081202?hub=TopStories)

No? Okay…
kody

By Harper bieng “poison” to democracy, you mean being elected leader by the democratic process?

I take it then that the leader who LOST the election becoming PM by backroom deals with a group that wants to destroy the country, (and avoid an election at all costs so that the public is denied an opportunity to have a say in this coalition) is somehow tonic for the otherwise poisonous display of democratic will?

Interesting.
Ti-Guy

ConBots, you’re getting downright surly, churlish and ill-tempered.

…It’s delicious.

You’ve had more than three years to civilise the Harpy. It’s too late now. And screaming at the rest of us won’t help.
Erin Weary

ProgBot Ti-Guy: I take that as a no?
David Fraser

Elected members can group to vote on any issue put before the House in any conformation they see fit. They now wish to vote on a motion of non-confidence in Stephen Harper’s government. Nowhere in that formulation is it necessary or required or even helpful that they put themselves before the public in an an election. They are elected. And conducting such a vote is their elected duty.

pwned.

Call it, Mr. Harper.
http://whery... kc

Well thise does seem to have got a lot of us aggitated. Hope everyone now posting voted – i move anyone who didn’t should be banished into harperspase[sorry]
I am happy to see that conservatives are starting to call for H head – i’m proud of you and i’m proud of the coaalition for standing up to H. However the fact remains the opp has no real legitimacy in the country. Yes they will have the confidence of the house but will they ever have the confidence of the country. H knows this and is cynically playing it for all he’s worth. I say again cons have to pull him dowm for the good of us all.
Ti-Guy

ProgBot Ti-Guy: I take that as a no?

No to what? I’m not reading any the ConBot’s shrieking histrionics and hysterical vitriol. Not for comprehension, anyway. As soon as I see ALL CAPS, and several exclamation points, my eyes glaze over.
http://whery... kc

I hope i made myself clear – after this political boil [Harper] is lanced then cons shouid have an opportunity to retain the confidence of the house – they won the frigging election. For progressives the opject of the exercise isn’t to poke cons in the eye merely because they’ve been doing it to us for 3 years.
Stevie Doesn’t Like it. A lot.

Kody,
Harper broke his election law, called a premature election. Then failed to work with the opposition for the good of Canadians. In fact, instead of working with them, he showed that he cannot, that he is incapable of putting aside partisan B-S for the good of the country. you folks don’t even understand parlimentary democracy.

Besides the ugly despotic campaign you conservatives ran helped to turn nearly half of us of federal politics completely. The prime minister is ultimately to blame for that failure of democracy if thats the way you want to play it.
Michael Schmidt

Great. Libtards in bed with a communist and a separatist. Harper and the Conservatives will get a majority after this Coalition of the Swilling’s hare-brained coup was thrust upon an unsuspecting Canadian public. Seems as if we now know who had the secret agenda all along. And it was not PMSH.