Reality Check

The Coalition is an agreement between the Liberals and the NDP, with limited support from the BQ, to form an alternative government SHOULD THE CURRENT GOVERNMENT FALL.

It is NOT (as much as we might like it to be) a commitment to bring down the current government as soon as possible no matter what.

That is all.

Here's What We Should Do:

Kady O'Malley has a little poll on her blog today asking people's preferences for selecting a new Liberal leader. Some of the options are facetious ("Leader handpicked by John Manley, who then heads back down the Highway to Heaven in search of wrongs to right"), some are impractical ("One-member-one-vote online/phone ballot within the next two weeks"), and some are sheer madness ("Oh, maybe we should just let him stick around until May. What harm could it do?").

Here are my suggestions, expanded from what I said in the comments.

As I understand it, the Liberal constitution simply doesn't allow for the selection of a permanent leader by anything other than the delegate process. Why the media is implying that Bob Rae is suggesting otherwise I have no idea - although I'll bet everyone is really wishing they'd opted for 'One Member, One Vote' at the last convention right now.

That leaves the options for appointing an interim leader, which are considerably more flexible although technically up to the National Executive. For reasons I've already stated that were echoed today by Martha Hall Findley, I would personally like to see someone other than Rae or Iggy installed to avoid giving the advantage to one or the other. Unfortunately, I don't think that's likely to happen. For one thing, it would be the equivalent of drawing straws for someone who will potentially be leading us in an election. For another, it will only add to the general air of uncertainty and give Harper more ammo to blast the coalition.

So. Given that the interim leader is likely to be either Rae or Ignatieff, and given that whoever is selected is more than likely to end up ratified at the convention, leaving this decision up to just the caucus is simply unacceptable. It would disenfranchise not only the grassroots of the party (thus proving everything bad that people say about the Liberals), but entire regions of the country that have next to no Liberal representatives in Parliament.

While it would be theoretically acceptable to try to do some sort of online or phone-based one member, one vote procedure for choosing an interim leader, I honestly can't see it happening within any sort of reasonable time frame. Remember, these are people who couldn't get a decent video together in a timely fashion.

My solution: one riding, one vote. If a riding has a Liberal MP, they get a vote. If they don't, the riding president gets a vote. And all must base their vote on the wishes of the riding membership, however formally or informally expressed. Preferably voiced at an in-person meeting, or maybe just by email. I know the Halton FLA is having its AGM this week, so that would be the perfect time for us, but each riding could decide how to go about making their choice.

There. Problem solved.

In any case, this all needs to be resolved by the second week of January.

On What The GG Knew and Could Not Know

H/T to Adam Rawlings, who has put us all onto this fascinating post by a former philosophy professor of his. Here's the nut of it:

If the PM enjoys the confidence of the House of Commons, then the Governor-General must do his or her bidding. On Thursday December 4th, Prime Minister Stephen Harper asked the GG to prorogue Parliament so that he would not have to face the House on a vote of confidence. Should she have acceded to his request? If he had the confidence of the House, she was obliged to do so. If he did not, she was obliged not to do so.

Here's a problem in what I call constitutional epistemology. Does the GG know that Harper did not have the confidence of the House? Well, in the ordinary sense, yes. Nobody could doubt that a majority of members of the House had no confidence in him. They said so. They signed pieces of paper to that effect.

Nevertheless, they had voted to receive the Speech from the Throne. So when the Commons had voted last in a confidence measure, they demonstrated confidence in Harper's government. Thus, the GG does not know, in a constitutional sense, that he does not have the confidence of the House.

I love tidy reasoning like that. Nice.

And... Cue the Ad Blitz

I am disappointed, I am angry, but I am not surprised.

Either decision would have set a horrible precedent, but this one is likely the lesser of two evils as far as the traditional role of the Governor General is concerned. And while this prorogation represents an unacceptable delay in dealing with the urgent issues facing the country while significantly increasing the possibility that the coalition will falter, my take on the mood of the public is that the shock of bringing down the government on Monday, however right that would have been, would have invoked fury and possibly violence among hard-core partisans.

No good answers, but the GG was placed an impossible situation for which I blame Harper, not Jean. And again, I don't know what is going to happen now. Other than we're going to be spending the next eight weeks listening to a very expensive propaganda campaign.

As for Harper's address last night and his comments today, all I can say is that five simple words could have gone a long, long way towards defusing this situation and reassuring Canadians.

I WILL OFFER MY RESIGNATION

No, no, sorry... that would be too much to ask for. Silly me. I mean these five words:

I WAS WRONG. I'M SORRY.

Mind you, that would actually require an acknowledgement of error. A modicum of humility. A soupçon of contrition. Kind of like what Conservative MP Michael Chong from my neighbouring riding of Wellington-Halton Hills expressed yesterday:

Chong said the government made a mistake by putting some elements that were "unpalatable" to the opposition parties in the fiscal update, but now that it's been changed all parties need to work together.

"We misread the situation and we've retracted those aspects of our update." Chong said.

"I think clearly the Conservatives . . . have been humbled by the turn of events in the last week.

"I think we as Conservatives need to understand we do not have a majority, and we therefore need to seek the support of opposition parties."

There. Was that so hard?

(From everything I've seen, Michael Chong is a good and decent man who represents the kind of traditional Canadian Conservative I wish we had more of, and I wrote him a nice note yesterday telling him so. Although I also took him to task over his mischaracterization of the role of the Bloc in the coalition accord.)

For now, this is what I would like to see in the coming weeks:

1) I stand by my recommendation that Dion resign and appoint a neutral interim party and coalition leader like Scott Brison. As much as I like Dion, he is becoming more and more of a public relations liability which Harper will only continue to exploit in the coming weeks. The issue of his leadership is an unnecessary distraction that needs to be removed.

2) Both the NDP and the Liberals need to call Harper's bluff by actively and visibly pushing their specific demands over what they want to see in the budget, regardless of their voting intent when Parliament resumes. If they do not, Harper will again exploit that.

3) Separatists in Quebec need to STOP TALKING SHIT!

I'm sure I'll think of more later.

Letter to Lisa

By way of the Editor of the Milton Champion, which today quoted Halton's new Conservative MP as saying,

“(We) will use every means possible to make sure this attack on Canada, this attack on democracy is not going to be allowed.”

My response:

To the Editor,

In the heated debate over recent events in Ottawa, it is unfortunate that Lisa Raitt and other representatives of the Conservative Party are trying to make their case by misleading Canadians.

Raitt referred to the proposed coalition between the Liberals and the NDP as "an attack on Canada, an attack on democracy". Perhaps she should bone up on her Canadian civics, because what the opposition parties are proposing is precisely how our parliamentary democracy is supposed to work. In fact, Stephen Harper proposed his own coalition with the NDP and the Bloc when he was on the other side of the aisle.

We did not elect Stephen Harper or the Conservative Party - we elected Members of Parliament to represent us. Our Prime Minister is chosen based on who has the support and confidence of the majority of those MPs. By his actions and his attitude, Stephen Harper has lost that confidence.

Prime Minister Harper has demonstrated time and time again that he is either unwilling or unable to work with opposition parties, despite his repeated promises to do so. Instead, he has chosen this time of economic crisis to deliberately provoke yet another political confrontation, playing his favourite game of 'Parliamentary Chicken' while failing to take any serious action to help Canadians through these hard times. Anyone concerned with the stability of a coalition government should consider how unstable three years of this sort of endless brinksmanship have made this country.

As for the opposition members, calling them names and accusing them of "attacking Canada" is an insult to the Canadians who elected them as their representatives. They are simply doing their job. Perhaps Ms. Raitt and her colleagues should try doing theirs.

Jennifer Smith

UPDATE: Published in the Milton Champion on Friday, Dec.5th., along with some other interesting editorial commentary.

Draft Scott Brison

Dear Liberal Caucus,

First, let me express my whole-hearted support of your coalition with the NDP. I encourage you all to stay the course and continue to push forward with this plan regardless of what Stephen Harper says or promises. He has repeatedly demonstrated his inability to put the country above partisanship and power games, and there is no reason to believe that he will change his behaviour in the future. Enough is enough.

As you deliberate on the details of this coalition, I would like to recommend Scott Brison as interim party and coalition leader.

Consider the following:

- As much as I and most other party members admire and support Stephane Dion, I feel that he would be unacceptable to too many people both within the coalition and among the Canadian public.

- Installing any of the three current Liberal leadership candidates would give that candidate a distinct and unfair advantage during the upcoming convention.

- Bringing in members of the old guard like Ralph Goodale or John McCallum would look too much like a return to the bad old days of the Liberal power brokers.

Scott Brison's performance over the past week has been tremendously impressive. His response to the fiscal update in Parliament was articulate, tough, cool-headed but forceful. Dare I say... Prime Ministerial.

Brison is young but experienced. He's a Maritimer and therefore largely outside of the worst of regional politics. As Industry and Finance critic, he is well versed in the central issues the coalition will have to deal with. He is not a contender for the Liberal leadership, nor does he really have a horse in that race, and is therefore safely neutral. And he has demonstrated his communication skills admirably and forcefully this week as point person for the media without ever sounding shrill, angry or arrogant.

Please consider Scott Brison as interim Liberal leader. Thank you.

Jennifer Smith
Proud Liberal
Halton