The Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal - December 3, 2008
Montreal Gazette - December 3, 2008
By Colin Kenny
Q1. What was Stephen Harper’s fatal flaw in his approach to the Economic Update that created the Constitutional Crisis?
A1. Some would say hubris – a Greek word for overconfidence. Some would point to his need to bully. I would add smallness. Great politicians grow when trauma strikes their citizens – they turn into impartial statesmen. Stephen Harper shrunk.
Q2. How can a mature country leave its political fate in the hands of a symbolic Governor General – chosen for presence rather than political acumen?
A2. Good question. But at least we’ve lucked out in this case – Michaëlle Jean is extremely bright, she was appointed by a Liberal, and she is a good friend of the Conservative Prime Minister. Their kids even play together. She’s clearly bipartisan. One hopes she is also well advised by constitutional experts. If we can’t get at least a reasonable judgment out of her, perhaps it’s time to revise the Constitution.
Q3. The Liberals did badly in the last federal election primarily because Stephan Dion came across as a dipstick, who Franco-Canadians disliked for his position on Quebec and who sounded like a mosquito in English. How can this coalition work with him leading it?
A3. At first, Canadians will be angry at having to listen to Dion again. And they may never forgive the Liberals for this. It’s a gamble – if all goes right the electorate will be grumbly for five months, then relieved when either Michael Ignatieff or Bob Rae take over. Maybe.
Q4. Canadians voted against Stephan Dion’s Green Plan. They seemed to have trouble understanding it. Will he reintroduce it?
A4. No. He said not. Barak Obama is going to attack pollution though a cap-and-trade scheme, similar to what the NDP advocated during the last federal election. Dion said Canada will too. Any way you look at it, there’s going to be a North American plan.
Q5. Was the main incentive for the opposition parties decision to dethrone the Government really it’s disgust at the Tories’ slowness and fecklessness in responding to the economic crisis, or the fact that Mr. Harper was going to take away their $195-a-vote electoral subsidy.
A5. Both. The Tories couldn’t have been more clumsy. From the viewpoint of the other three parties, the Government was ducking commitments to spending on economic victims at the same time it was attempting to eliminate political opposition. It is never wise to try to snuff the people you need to survive votes in the Commons.
Q6. Isn’t it inevitable that Dion, Layton and Gilles Duceppe will be branded as “The Three Stooges.”
A6. Of course. The Conservatives have already started the campaign. That’s politics. Just don’t call them “the Big Three” – automotive jokes aren’t funny these days.
Q7. Is the “NEW” coalition government likely to gain more from a U.S. Barack Obama government than a Conservative government?
A7. Does water mix better with H2O than oil? Of course.
Q8. Will the Liberals and their partners pay for all this brashness at the next federal election?
A8. Depends on how well they do. Prime Minister Brian Mulroney was ridiculed for saying he was “rolling the dice” on a the Meech Lake constitutional issue. But hey, politics is always about rolling the dice.
Q9. Is it wrong that parties are wrangling during a huge economic crisis?
A9. Maybe. But they all truly believe that they know the best way of getting out of the crisis.
Q10. Isn’t it a goofy idea to bring people of different political beliefs together to run a country that needs leadership to get through a national crisis?
A10. Nobody seems to be questioning Obama’s bipartisan approach in Washington. In fact they’re applauding. What was really goofy was the leader of a minority government that refused to listen to anyone else’s advice during a crisis. If you want to lead, don’t shrink when the chips are down.
Colin Kenny is a Liberal senator and was chair of the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence in the last parliament. He can be reached via email at kennyco@sen.parl.gc.ca