What Would You Have Done?

 
The recent kerfuffle in Canada has prompted all kinds of talk from TV personalities, newspaper columnists, and bloggers. Everybody has an opinion.

One of the common threads is that all politicians in Ottawa are behaving badly and every single one of them needs to grow up and act like an adult. Some blame Harper and some blame Dion. Right now it seems to be Dion who is coming in for the most criticism.

Here's a handy way to distinguish facts from bias. Don't ask for what might have happened in an ideal world but ask instead what you would have advised when the crisis began. When you hear people spouting off about how Dion is ruining the country, for example, ask them what they would have done in his place.

Here's my take.

If Harper had called me before presenting his budget I would have told him to take out the clauses that eliminate party funding, ban civil servant's right to strike, and block pay equity challenges. I would have pointed out that all three are inflammatory and designed to alienate the opposition parties that he needs for support in the House. This is not the time for partisan politics, especially since none of these measures are necessary and, furthermore, they were not something that the Conservative Party made into election issues in October.

Obviously Harper didn't call me and didn't listen to anyone else who might have warned him of the consequences.

Once the budget was made public, what should Stéphane Dion have done? This is an important question and everyone who criticizes Dion should be prepared to answer it. Here's my answer.

The Liberal Party could not have supported such a budget because it was a deliberate slap in the face. It would have been devastating to party finances to eliminate federal funding of political parties and Harper knew that. In the previous sessions of parliament the Liberals abstained on many votes allowing the Conservatives to govern as if they were a majority. That behavior was widely, and correctly, criticized last year and it could not continue in the current session of Parliament.

The fact that Harper proposed an in-your-face challenge on the very first bill was an indication of how he intended to behave for the next few years. This was the only chance the Liberals were going to get to take a stand.

I would have advised Dion and the Liberals to vote against the budget no matter what the consequences. If Harper wanted to call and election, so be it. Having been forced into a corner, I don't believe the Liberals had a choice.

When the idea of a Liberal-NDP coalition came up, I would have advised Dion to agree, provided the plan did not compromise Liberal principles. If the Bloc agreed to not vote in favor of any non-confidence motion for 18 months then that would be perfectly acceptable. In other words, if I had been advising Dion I would have advised him to do exactly what he did. The coalition avoided an unnecessary election and was perfectly in line with the principles of a parliamentary democracy.

Anyone who criticizes Dion's decision should let us know what alternative was preferable. Here were the choices: abstaining, voting for the government, voting against the government?

During this waiting period we can ask ourselves the same questions. What's the best way out of the crisis? Here's my answer ...

The best solution is for Stephen Harper to resign as leader. His replacement should seek out a compromise budget that many parties can support. The new leader should announce that the three inflammatory proposals are not part of the new leader's priorities.

That's probably not going to happen.

Assuming that Stephen Harper is still Prime Minister at the end of January what should Liberals do? I don't think they can support a government led by Stephen Harper. They should vote against the budget, or the throne speech, at the first opportunity. Not only has Harper revealed his agenda in the earlier budget, he has made things much worse by lying about our system of government, stirring up regional bigotry, and provoking a constitutional crisis. Such a man cannot be Prime Minister of my country.

I really don't care whether Dion remains leader of the Liberal Party or whether he is replaced by an interim leader who becomes Prime Minister under a coalition government. The Liberals can even appoint a permanent leader if that's what they decide to do. (Not my preference.) The important point is that the Liberals cannot support Stephen Harper in January.

We cannot have an anti-French, anti-democratic, vindictive, megalomaniac, liar as Prime Minister. I hope that Conservative MPs will realize this themselves before January. If they don't, they should be moved to the Opposition benches, which they will share with the Bloc Québécois.

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