Harper wants to govern even more aggressively in 2011
Posted by Nick Fillmore of Catch 22
You have to give credit to Stephen Harper on one point. When it comes to political strategy and unethical behaviour he's tops in keeping his band of misfits in power in Ottawa.
For instance, Harper stood his ground in September 2009, watching Jack Layton and the NDP “blink” and, along with the Bloc, vote in favour of the budget. In effect, this allowed the Conservative gravy train to stay on the tracks.
At other times, he demonstrated his true feeling about democracy by shutting down Parliament. Twice. In one case, this prevented the public from learning the truth about “who knew what when”, – the who being primarily Peter MacKay – concerning the torture of prisoners Canada had turned over to Afghanistan’s brutal security service. In the other case, it stopped the opposition's "coalition" gambit dead in its tracks.
During the five years that Harper really would not likely have been in power if Canada had a modern electoral system, he ran roughshod over the wishes and interests of the vast majority of Canadians. He sneered at us as he slashed public-interest programs developed over decades by far greater leaders – the likes of Tommy Douglas, Pierre Trudeau, Ed Broadbent, etc. Harper used government resources to do everything possible to try to see that he stays in power.
As Lawrence Martin writes in The Globe and Mail, despite the lack of a majority, Harper has been dominant everywhere.
“Mr. Harper has run his minority as if he won a landslide. He’s overrun the checks and balances in the system to the point where he has the system pretty much under heel.”
As we enter 2011, what’s ahead for us? Will Harper be able to satisfy the NDP by including a little present for them in the next budget?
If the speculation offered by the Globe’s John Ibbitson is right, Harper will avoid a spring election and be able to dominate events in Ottawa even more aggressively then in the past.
Can Harper wait out the election traffic jam?
“The prospect of 12 months of electoral security – if they get it – will change the way the Conservatives govern. They hope to move from the crisis management associated with minority government to focusing on a few major priorities that will roll out over the course of the year.”
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Comment by CK Twight on January 13, 2011 at 10:27am -
I think an election this spring is most likely. Have you read Gerry Nicholls' column in the Globe this morning? Yeah, I don't particularly care much for the man's politics neither, but what he said actually makes sense. Since he was vp of the NCC and was a member at the same time Harper was; they most certainly would've talked to each other back in the day. I highly recommend the read, bt I do caution, this article, needless to say will offend those to the left of Harper. Nonetheless, it's important to learn every possible angle.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/why-stephen-ha...
Oh, and according to Mr. Nicholls' personal blog today, even if the budget does fly, it looks like removal of those per vote subsidies is back rearing its' ugly head and could trigger an election.
http://gerrynicholls.blogspot.com/2011/01/harpers-trained-seals.html
It could be quite clever actually, another score for Harper. Remember, those per vote subsidies are what drove that 2008 coalition together in the first place, along with Harper's denial of the recession. Since Harper still loves to sing that coalition song over and over again, yet it is less and less convincing given how the NDP and the Liberals snipe at each other and Gilles Duceppe and the Bloc doin' their own thing, serving Quebec and promoting sovereignty.
A coalition, with or without the Bloc's help (Or so-called Lib-Dem merger, for that matter) would ensure a Harpercon majority, as Harper knows better than anyone else.
With the scrapping of the subsidy coming back to the table to not only trigger a spring election, it might well throw the Liberals and the NDP together in some kind of coaltion/merger, again, with or without the Bloc's help. It would also serve Harper's goal (according to Nicholls, that is, but I believe him) of decimating the Liberals; the centrist party, or at the very least, push the message that there is no more centrist party, but rather, "socialists", an irrational fear Canadians fear just as much as the tea-partying Americans.
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