Senate Posts

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Well, finally Stephen Harper has given an early Christmas present to 18 people for the plush job of the Senate.  Long since Preston Manning held a fiesta for a senator long removed from Canada, Harper managed to fill the senate with a bunch of quiet-spoken backbenchers and backroom strategists who will most likely do as they are told.  The exceptions, of course, are former journalists Pamela Wallen and Mike Duffy.  I personally think the Duff is a great choice for the senate and probably knows more about the government of Canada than anyone.  How appropriate it is for a journalist to become a politician is up in the air.  Other than that, I think it is pretty telling how half of the appointments don't even have pages on Wikipedia.  Many commentators are wondering about the lack of Reformers on the list, such as Preston Manning, without realizing that Alberta had no vacancies.  A big WTF is the appointment of Nancy Greene Raine, but I suppose it is no worse than the appointment of former Leaf Frank Mahovlich.

Another thing most commentators don't realize is that Harper's vain attempts to reform the senate are futile and unconstitutional.  The only way senate reform will happen is if the provinces finally get their acts together and agree on a method to do it.  As of right now, Alberta and Saskatchewan are the only provinces pushing for senate elections, and I find it highly unlikely that at least one of Ontario or Quebec will go for it either.  Without one of the two most populous provinces, senate reform will not happen, as it requires reopening the constitution.  Of course, Harper could bring about a national referendum on this, but I doubt most people care that much.

One stipulation is that the senate terms are for 8 years, but I somehow doubt that it is binding.  Who wants to bet these senators will find it rather comfortable, and when the eight years are up and after failed attempts to make elections that they just stay there?  They are entitled to their entitlements, so they say.

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Perhaps of more concern is the low radar appointment of a federal judge.  By the article, it sounds like Thomas Cromwell is an agreeable choice, however it flies in the face of the vetting process that Harper himself set up at the start of his first term in government.

The Governor General should really look into how constitutional all of these appointments are.  Appointments during non-confidence times just doesn't seem right.  Although I fully agree that the senate is overly stacked with Liberals, I still don't see it as an excuse to ignore the wide variety of political opinions in this country.  A Stephen Harper of the opposition 6 years ago would have agreed.

Back to the start again

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Well, with the excitement over the constitutional crisis over, and a new Liberal leader, the polls are indicating things are back to where they were after the election in 2006.  The polls are indicating that Ignatieff and Harper are essentially tied in terms of how "Prime Ministerial" they are.  I think this shows right away that the last election is less about hating the Liberals as it was hating of Dion.  Ignatieff is largely unknown to most of the public, and I think they are optimistic that things will be better organized in the opposition ranks with him.

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And in the big surprise of the week (that's sarcasm), a poll has found that Canadians don't really know how are government works.  In a democracy, it is incredibly important that the people voting know how the government works, otherwise we might as well just have a dictatorship.  With the responsibility of the vote, people should at a minimum realize some of the basic functions of how the leader is chosen and who the head of state is and what they do.

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The story of the weekend is Auto Bailout.  I really don't see the reason to bail out an industry that has plenty of variety in the marketplace already.  The "Big 3" got to their position through a combination of overpayment to manual labour jobs that could cheaply be done in other countries, poor marketing of more fuel efficient lines, focusing on huge gas guzzlers that are no longer profitable, and large amounts of consolidation.

I have always had the opinion that having large corporations is bad for the economy, because if a single large corporation goes down, it has a huge ripple effect on the entire economy.  This is the fatal flaw of those who advocate for the free market, as it has shown that it leads to consolidation as companies do not want to compete against each other.  What would have happened if GM, for instance, was split up into individual companies that focused on different products, like small cars, trucks, and parts.  If one of those companies failed, then it would only have minor affects on the entire economy.

Even so, with the Hondas, Toyotas, Kias, etc., why do we even need to save the Big Three?  If the Big Three collapse, will that mean that people will stop buying cars?  That is silly.  The other companies might be foreign, but most of the cars are actually built in North America.  In Canada, those companies are putting their plants exactly where the closed Big Three plants are.

In the US, things are complicated by the fact that the foreign companies set up their plants in the south, where Republicans are dominated, while the Big Three are in the North, which is dominated by the Democrats.  There will be a bailout, but I don't see how it will end up saving these companies.  They are bleeding money from a combination of low sales and the inability to borrow money from banks due to the credit crunch.  They will not be able to all of the sudden make products that people will buy in just a few months, about the time that that 14 billion bailout would amount to.  Ultimately, the big three are done, and should be allowed to follow in the footsteps of Lehmann Bros.

Horray Hypocrisy

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Well, in the face of having difficulties in passing bills, Stephen Harper decided to pull a Mulroney and stack the senate with partisans (just as a note, Mulroney did this because the Liberals majority in the senate refused to pass the GST bill).  Before the end of the year, 18 new senators will be appointed by Conservative lackies, flying in the face of the throne speech for the failed first session 40th parliament, where Harper pledged senate reform.  Senate reform is something that I strongly agree with, but the way things are going, it will never happen.

Now you might say "well, the Liberals did the exact thing".  Well, I say two wrongs don't make a right.  Paul Martin at least tried to balance his appointments (though two of the "Conservative" appointments he made sat as PC members and refused to join the new Conservative party, and the NDP refused to let the NDP appointee in their caucus).  Simply put, Harper knows his days could be limited, and he needs to exert all the influence he can should a coalition government take his place.  The senate is the ultimate house of cronyism, and in its present form is almost completely useless.

I have always proposed that in lieu of standard elections for senators, that the senate be filled by proportional representation by party.  In a way, this will still lead to appointments, but at least they will be reserved for a particular party.  The senate was meant to balance out the power of densely populated areas, and I think it should stay that way, with the west, Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes each getting the same amount of seats.  I think that 30 or so for each area would be appropriate (and maybe 2 for the North).  The senate should be elected every 6 years to give a little bit of stability compared to the House of Commons (6 years is the term for US Senators, just for a reference).  Floor crossing would not be allowed, and any renegade senator would be replaced by their party.

Of course, this is unlikely to be the system that the Conservatives had in mind, but I think it would be a way to balance things out, rather than having appointments be solely up to the Prime Minister.

Enter Ignatieff

Well, after a two year delay, Michael Ignatieff finally got his wish and became leader of the Liberal party.  I'm sure he is delighted that Stephane Dion dropped their seat count by 20 during the last election, but I guess it took a disaster to bring the Liberals together.  Already the Conservatives are calling this an undemocratic thing, carefully ignoring how they came to be.  Of course, the coronation of Paul Martin certainly failed, though things are a lot different than 2004.

Ignatieff became convinced that he could become the leader of the Liberals after a popular speech at the 2003 leadership convention.  Many Liberals were already trying to convince him to come back to Canada from his plumb post at his alma mater of Harvard.  Few people, including myself, took too much stock in his move to the University of Toronto as being sincere and I figured that he would pack his bags and leave should he lose his bid for a seat.  However, he did win that seat, and Paul Martin did lose the election, paving his way for frontrunner status in the leadship race that followed.  However, he had his share of gaffes, and a slight majority of the Liberals at the convention felt he was too much of a liablility, and instead chose the unknown Dion.  As for Ignatieff, I'm sure he initially considered going out of politics until it quickly became apparent that Dion would not last long.  And here we are.

Now, I admit that before the election, I considered voting Liberal.  Could I vote for an Ignatieff led party?  I am going to say no.  Although I consider him to be a much stronger leader than Dion, I think that his views will certainly take the Liberals to the social right, something I cannot support.  Or maybe it is his glowing support for the invasion of Iraq to "spread democracy", or his incredibly smug "apology" where he claimed that the Nobel winning people who opposed the war had less judgement than a bus driver.  Here is a man who's ego stretches out far and wide (much like Dion, but more eloquent).  Let the descent of Canadian politics continue, as we have a leader who has spent most of his professional life outside of Canada.

Monday's events

Compared to last week, today seemed rather mundane.  First the Liberal leadership debacle.  Dominic LeBlanc,  realizing he has absolutely no chance at winning after near invisibility last week, decided to back obvious front runner Ignatieff.  Dion stated that he will step down far sooner than May, as the Liberals make a push to find a new leader before parliament resumes on January 26th.  I can tell you nothing will make all Canadians happier than to see Dion gone.  The big question is will the Liberal executive appoint Ignatieff and go with a token leadership vote in May, or will they decide to go with a more broad-based vote?  Ignatieff has a lock on the executive, due to their reluctance to back the failed former NDP Premier of Ontario.  Maybe they will surprise us an appoint an interim leader who is more pragmatic than Dion while Ignatieff and Rae bicker.  I'm guessing they will go with appointing Ignatieff, but I would warn the Liberals to remember the anointment of Paul Martin and the problems that caused.

The second big thing of the day is the Quebec election.  It appears that Jean Charest and the Liberals got just enough seats to win a majority.  It is probably less an endorsement of the Liberals than the absolute rejection of the ADQ and the poor leadership of Mario Dumont to increase the broad base support of the ADQ.  It also doesn't help that the ADQ are fairly close on many levels to the federal Conservatives, who aren't exactly popular in Quebec.  I think that Charest is a bit of a douche but given the alternative of a traditionally fiscally irresponsible PQ, what choice did Quebec have?  Marois is a very decisive personality herself, especially after the debacle over her mansion.  Well, the dream of a right wing party in Quebec seems to be over, anyways.

Now something completely different, the US is starting to fly aerial drones over the Manitoba border.  I wonder if they fear some sort of invasion by all the border straddling Mennonite communities.  But seriously, one has to wonder at the point of this exercise other than to build a level of mistrust between Canada and the US.  I find it highly unlikely that a single drone flying over will have any effect on the illegal drug trade.  The lessons of prohibition were obviously not learned in the US.  If they want to end the organized crime associated with the drug trade, the most effective thing would be to legalize and regulate these substances.  Of course, the US could never regulate anything and would rather spend billions on a futile battle across a border that would be impractical to monitor all the time.

Rick Mercer on the political mess

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Rick Mercer has written an interesting comparison of Stephen Harper and a polar bear in a German zoo who was so nurtured growing up, that when the attention was gone, it became depressed.  It is pretty crazy that a bunch of the supporters of Harper on Thursday were a bunch of paid staffers.  Seems almost a bit dishonest to suggest he had a huge amount of support there.  Of course, this is the same guy who secretly taped a closed NDP meeting last week.

Of course, one of the items on my list in this post is coming true.  In all likelihood Stephane Dion will be gone in the coming week.  Although I can't say I will likely support Ignatieff or Rae, at the very least they are more competent than Dion.  Things already seem to be calming down, and I am sure that by the second week of January we will have another Liberal leader.  It really is too bad there isn't someone more inspiring than Ignatieff or Dion, though.

Prorogue happens

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Well, proroguation has happened. We now have no government working for the next month and a half, basically summing it up since the beginning of the election to make it almost 5 months (or even 7 months if you count the fact that there was the summer break). Another thing mentioned is that sets the dangerous president that the Prime Minister now has the power to prorogue whenever he is set to lose a confidence vote. Here are some things I would like to see:

1) Stephane Dion resign and the Liberals settle their leadership contest a week before parliament resumes. It is clear that he has little support from Canadians, and he should step down before he destroys the Liberal Party.

2) Stephen Harper resign before he tears this country into 4 or 5 parts. Regionalism was on a downturn in the earlier party of the decade, and now it has been inflamed to levels not seen since the Meech Lake Accord failure. He is not a leader and has no ability to bring people from across the country. He should resign so that another Conservative leader can patch up things with Quebec before the damage is permanent. He should resign so that there is a chance that there can be a deal made with another party before a confidence vote.

3) I want see an economic stimulus package laid out before the budget. There should be a lot of spending on infrastructure in particular, especially after hearing about things like the bridge closure in Ottawa. Canada's infrastructure is falling apart, and now is a great time to build it up again when the threats of unemployment and falling exports is very real.

4) I think it is necessary that people get educated on how parliament works, and what the roles of the elected members and the Governor General are. News networks should really broadcast prime time specials on this issue, so that people know and aren't stonewalled with rhetoric.

5) A promise to close the loophole in the elections law that allowed Harper to call the early election in the fall. Would we be at this point if there was no election?

6) I want to see an end to all private donations of public parties. I think the Conservative media bombardment now and long before the election should never be allowed, and it wouldn't happen if the Conservatives didn't have more money than the rest of the other parties combined. This is very unlikely to happen, and many people do not see why public funding of politics is a good idea. Another good idea would be to make laws that prevent electioneering and public advertising for political parties outside of elections. That is something that I think is more important.

Living in Sudbury, the largest company here, Vale Inco has started to shut down mines and get people to retire early.  I'm sure that elsewhere the same kind of things are happening.  And we currently have no working government.  This really is pretty crazy.  It certainly will be an interesting holiday season.

Not much new today

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Well, the stage is set now, Harper will most likely prorogue parliament.  He gave a pretty calm televised address, which is a far cry from the madness during the rest of the day.

I am pretty pissed off at the optics that the Conservatives are putting forward that this coalition is some "unholy" deal with the separatists.  Although I am no fan of the Bloc, this tactic will only inflame the separatist movement, just like I am sure the coalition idea will inflame separatist movements in Alberta.  This really tells me that the Conservatives have given up hope of getting more seats in Quebec.  They seem destined to create a minority hell where we will never have a truly stable government ever again.  We are quickly approaching the longest string of minority rule in Canadian history (the string of Diefenbaker and Pearson minorities during the 60s was slightly longer).

Large cities are going to continue to vote Liberal/NDP, Alberta and rural Canada is going to continue voting Conservative, and Quebec will continue to vote for the Bloc.  It is very discouraging that with this situation that the Conservatives refuse to make deals with the opposition parties on a vote by vote basis like they did at the beginning of 2006.  Back then, I was optimistic that the Conservatives would get through some legislation that I supported, such as an elected senate, removing the long gun registry and ending the wheat board monopoly.  None of these things happened, and Harper pushed the opposition too far.

The Globe and Mail lays out the options

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Tonight will be a short post, as I had a busy day.  The Globe and Mail has laid out 10 options that Harper has in the next few days.  The most bizarre is replacing the Governor General with a Conservative lackey, which would require the Queen getting involved (I really doubt that would be popular).  Reading the comments on that page, it is pretty clear that most people think that the 10th option - where Harper resigns would be optimal.  And I agree.  I think that if Harper resigns, this coalition plan will die off.  With Harper as leader, there is no possible way that the opposition will back down.  If he has the best interests of Canada in mind, he will do it by Thursday.

And Harper is finished

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Well, it is official, the Conservatives are done, unless they do something extreme like proroguing the parliament.  I don't think that is really an option, and I doubt the Governor General would allow it considering the reason for doing it.  The dissent in the Conservative ranks is already beginning to show with Stockwell Day and Rob Nickolson not rising when Harper spoke in Question Period.  The look on Harper's face when Jim Prentice spoke and the opposition shouting "leader!" was priceless.

The only option to save a Conservative government now is for Stephen Harper to resign.  He has had many chances to get a majority government, and now he has failed to provide confidence in the house.  I think it is very unlikely the Conservatives will ever get a majority so long as he is the leader, and it will certainly only get harder if Michael Ignatieff becomes Liberal leader (despite my disdain for Ignatieff, he is certainly going to have broader support than Dion).

When it all comes down to it, I think Canadians are going to be pissed off at all parties.  Although I welcome a coalition to bring down Harper, I would be lying if I said it will last a long time.  I fully expect there to be an election next fall, and I predicted that long before this happened.  What a mess.