Stephen Harper’s Canadian Parliament Funkier Than George Clinton’s

Canada was unusually thrust into the centre of the world politics last week when (Prices of maple syrup dropped? Beavers attacked the capital? The U.S. annexed Toronto?) Prime Minister Stephen Harper shut down parliament in a bid to save himself from a coalition of his political enemies. Perhaps inspired by the actions of Thai protesters, but more likely due to fears that oil prices haven’t saved Canada from recession, Harper swung into action, first getting the go-ahead from Governor General Michaelle Jean in the face of a vote of non-confidence which would see Harper and his politically unpopular economic policies ousted in spectacular fashion. Maybe he’ll start shutting down the airports next.

These events may come as a bit of a surprise to some Canadians who just voted Harper in with 37.6% of the vote in October in national elections. But due to the fact that it was a decidedly low number of Canucks who went to the polls this year, and that most lefties just despise him, the Liberals, New Democratic Party and Bloc Quebecois linked arms and marched on Parliament Hill to show that their combined heft of 62.4% of the national vote was something to be contended with. Sadly, in spite of spawning the support of many Facebook users the Coalition (or The Dullard, The Moustache and The Separatist as they should be known) was still at the mercy of standard democratic procedure, and so could not operate without parliament.

But what of this word “democracy”? Harper bandied it about in his clever ads and speeches aimed at convincing people  he was democracy’s saviour, all the while preventing it’s basic machinery, parliament, from doing its work. Sure Stephane Dion, the leader of the Liberals and the proposed Coalition Prime Minister, is a bit of a bore and weak on the details, and hey, maybe Jack Layton, leader of the NDP has an unpopular economic platform, and as oh, heck, Gilles Duceppe, leader of the Bloc is, well, a separatist, perhaps they might not be the best group of guys to lead the country.  

So really, perhaps Harper’s actions are not the self-serving acts of preservation that they seem to be, but rather the actions of a protective Prime Minister who just happens to get to stay in power so long as he keeps the bad guys at bay. Not that he’d ever be part of a coalition to oust the government, right?

Posted by Carmody Wilson in Other | December 8, 2008 5:16PM |