IF
IT'S SO BAD, WHY DON'T OPPOSITION DEFEAT IT?
by Angelo
Persichilli
THE HILL TIMES
More than the MPs, Canadians are looking forward to this summer Parliamentary recess because what we've seen in this spring session is a futile, at the best, and shameful, at the worst, debate between all political parties.
To get an idea of how futile and hypocritical the debate is in the House these days, you only need to listen to the daily tirades of the opposition parties against the government during Question Period.
From the sounds of the opposition party leaders, they're fighting against the worst government in Canada, ever. Mind you, we've heard this song before, but this time there's a minor difference: they have the power to defeat "the worst government Canada ever had" but they haven't.
This means that they're either lying about the government or they don't have the guts to rid Canadians of it.
I've heard many of them saying that "Mr. Harper has to remember that he did not receive the mandate from the majority of Canadians." True, but definitely he received the approval of the majority of the MPs in the House, otherwise we would now be facing another election.
Canadians are aware of this and are not paying attention to the daily rants of the opposition parties on every issue on the table, from the environment to the economy and from Afghanistan to federal-provincial relations.
Canadians are looking for real answers, real debate, not a riot on every single initiative the government takes.
Unfortunately, while Canadians didn't pay any attention to this squalid cheap way of doing politics, the government did.
In doing so, the government had to lower itself to the same standard, returning to the sender, in kind, all the mud thrown at it.
We've heard Liberals accusing the Conservatives of mishandling every issue they could find on the front pages of major newspapers and the Conservatives responding by reminding the Liberals that they did much worse.
In my opinion, this has been the wrong approach because Canadians did not need to be reminded of the Liberals' downfalls. Canadians do know them all which is why Stephen Harper is now the Prime Minister of Canada.
However, while the Liberal deficiencies were enough to bring Mr. Harper in government, Canadians need to know more from the Conservative leadership before they give them a majority mandate to govern.
It was not a coincidence that the polls were more generous with the Conservatives in their first year of power when they engaged Canadians in debate and it seemed like their treasured majority was just around the corner. That opportunity faded when the governing Conservatives switched their focus of debate with Canadians to engaging the opposition parties.
This was clear after the shuffle Mr. Harper introduced last January. From that moment on the possibility of a Conservative majority government disappeared from the polls. It's also interesting to note that the popularity of the Liberals or the other opposition parties did not go up.
This means that a vote today would produce the same results as last January's election: a minority government.
Canadians know that the Liberals, aside from the daily 45-minute noise they produce in the House during Question Period, are still an empty shell in terms of policies, organization, and financial support. The presence of the NDP in the House, even with the much-improved leadership of Jack Layton, is welcomed by Canadians as a good condiment for the meal, but still not the meal.
As for the Bloc Québécois, we know that their influence in Canadian politics is very important, but to decide who, between Liberals and Conservatives, is going to lead the government.
So, at this time, the only party that has a chance to form a majority government is still Prime Minister Harper's Conservative Party, as long as the Tories stop engaging in the futile debate with the opposition parties and start, again, one with Canadians.
This recess is a good opportunity for Mr. Harper to retool his government by putting people in charge who have the ability to engage and inspire Canadians, not those whose only skills are to handle the mud thrown at them by the Liberals.
Canadians are never impressed by mud, from wherever it comes and wherever it lands.
It might have been needed for the time being, just to tell Liberals that mud is not enough to bring them back to government, but by now the Conservative strategists should also see that mud is not enough to give them a majority.
Contrary to what the opposition parties are saying, the Conservative minority government hasn't done a bad job, considering that the economy is still booming, people are working, and Canada is still a good and better place to live. Of course, they made mistakes and there are still many issues to deal with and in order to deal with the issues, I believe that Mr. Harper will soon present to Canadians a government that is more focused on engaging in a debate with them and less with the opposition parties. I wouldn't be surprised to see a shuffle as soon as the House goes into recess.
The last thing Canadians are looking forward to is to see the same level of debate in the House when they go back to work after the summer holidays.
