It seems Canadian politicians are up to some weaselly tactics and the the opposition (pseudo-socialist New Democrats, Liberal Party, and the separatist Bloc Québecois) are attempting to form a coalition in order to seize power. This is despite the fact that Canadians just had an election where the Conservative Party under Prime Minister Stephen Harper were reelected.
I will outline my sympathies right away: I am no fan of the Liberal Party, consider the NDP to be an embarrasingly poor imitation of Britain’s Labour Party, and detest the Bloc who are a party that only represents the interests of the seperatists within Quebec and bear no allegience towards either Canada or the Crown. I am very cynical about this whole experiment.
These kinds of coalitions aren’t without precedent, but they have historically been unsuccessful. In the late 1700s Britain was managed by the Fox-North coalition which like this coalition was put together by bitter enemies who schemed their way to power and quickly lost and there was a ‘National’ coalition put together during the Great Depression which tore apart the parties and discredited that coalitions leaders. These are just examples that come to mind, there are of course others – such as the succesful wartime coalitions in both Canada and Britain. However, it is difficult to compare any of these to the current situation.
Therefore, lets look at the facts. The Liberals lost their dominance over parliament after a scandal that revealed massive corruption and arguably set up Mr. Paul Martin to go down as a scapegoat. After scouring the CBC’s message boards, it seems to me that many (not all) Canadians feel that the Liberals are simply making a power grab by allying with the NDP and the Bloc who are traditionally antagonistic to all the parties. This isn’t an unjustifiable view – the Liberal did a complete about turn on major policy issues such as Afghanistan the second they lost power in order to attack the Conservatives on issues that the Liberals themselves initiated.
The immoral part of the coalition lies in the democratic violation that is occuring. The Canadians just had an election that brought in a Conservative government for the second time in a row. Not even six weeks later and the opposition decided that the will of the people is not important. Now, many will make the arguement that by combining these parties ithey have the support the Conservatives do not (as they constitute a majority) – however this is a misconstruction of results. The Conservative Party were elected to be the governing party – no coalition participated in the election and the individual parties were specifically NOT chosen. To suggest that putting the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place runners together makes them the winners over the 1st place guy just doesn’t make sense. It’s completely inappropriate.
In addition to the immorality of the coalition, it doesn’t make sense for some basic reasons. The argument as to why the coalition is made is because the current Prime Minister is accused of being unable to handle the economy. However, scouring the profiles of the different leaders reveals that Stephen Harper has a PhD in economics while the other leaders have no background at all. Stephen Harper is being challenged because he not taking panicked reactionary measures to an economic crisis being pushed by fear, and his opponents don’t have the economic grounding to understand his approach.
The coalition is probably doomed to failure. If the NDP, Bloc, and Liberals couldn’t cooperate before, it is unlikely they will suceed when the limelight is on them and they cannot simply sit back and critique. It is dangerous to allow Separatist such a strong voice in government, but I suspect the coalitions differences will tear them apart sooner than later anyway.
Don’t be surprised if Canadians go back to the polls in early 2009. I’d predict an election just before the summer – you wouldn’t want the MPs to waste their holidays campaigning, after all.
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