Well, the House of Commons may be shut down, but that doesn’t mean our trusty prime minister is on vacation! No way! When he isn’t busy lecturing other countries about “enlightened sovereignty” (because if there’s one man I’m turning to for enlightenment, it’s Stephen Harper), he’s putting the final touches on his long-anticipated appointment of five new Conservative senators, which took place yesterday.
The move gives the Conservatives a plurality in the Senate and, with Parliament being prorogued, all Senate committees will be reset when the politicos reconvene on March 3. So while a bunch of legislation that was on the table died when the Governor General decided to grant Harper his prorogation request, never fear! With a realigned Senate, any Conservative-friendly legislation will now have an easier time being made into law!
That’s for the best, since an overwhelming majority of Canadians (32%) support the governing party (down slightly from the overwhelming majority with which they were elected in 2008, 37%).
And since the Senate fairly represents the diversity of Canadians’ viewpoints*, what with their 51 Conservatives, 49 Liberals and five independents.
And because Harper himself has never publicly stated that senators should be elected, not appointed.
None of this is accidental, folks. None of it is coincidence. This is precisely why Harper sought prorogation. Forget the bullshit about “recalibrating” or taking time to formulate a new stimulus package or giving people time to watch the Olympics or whatever. Three years ago, Harper pretended that Senate reform was at the top of his agenda. Now he’s cynically manipulating parliamentary convention in order to stack the unelected upper house with his cronies, in the hopes of pushing through legislation that suits his own unpopular agenda.
What’s that, you say? He still only has a minority in the House, and therefore couldn’t get anything through to the Senate without some compromise, dictated by the opposition? Guess again. We’ve seen this song and dance before.
If the three opposition parties attempt to launch any sort of attack on Harper’s agenda, he’ll dare them to call an election, confident in the assumption that the terrifying specter of an “unelected coalition” (and the revulsion with which it would presumably be met by the Canadian populace) would be enough to put the Conservatives back in power again.
But I hope the opposition does call his bluff. Canadians have shown, with their mobilized response to prorogation, that they may be fooled once, but not again. I hope the opposition does declare, before any election is called, that their intention is to run on the platform of an informal coalition to defeat the Conservatives (with similar caveats in place as were present during the proposed coalition in 2008). That way, Harper won’t be able to claim that anyone is trying to stage any sort of coup.
The choice will be clear: a party which clearly has no interest in working with anyone else to actually govern the country, or a motley crew of admittedly imperfect politicians who, for all their own flaws, are at least willing to work with one another to actually represent the people of Canada.
The phrase “lesser of two evils” has never been more apt in Canadian politics. But if this is the choice Canadians are faced with in 2010, I can only hope they rightly decide to send Harper and the Conservative party a clear message: we are not pawns to be toyed with. We care about our democracy and our country. And if you’re not willing to work within the confines of our parliamentary system (or obtain the consent of the people if you wish to make changes), then don’t let the saloon door hit your ass on the way out.
That’s my hope. Will it become reality?
. . .
Yeah, that’s all I’ll say.
(* I realize the goal of the Senate is to ensure geographic representation, not partisan representation, but it’s still ridiculous that in a four-party system [five-party system?], only two are represented in the upper house of Parliament, wouldn’t you say?)