Canada’s dictator got his way today, as reported in The New York Times. “Parliament closed to keep PM in power“; no Virginia, the Times is not reporting on Zimbabwe. That the Canadian equities markets dropped just less than 3% and the Canadian dollar only lost 2% of its value on this news comes more as relief than vindication of the Harper government’s nefarious strategy. Now, not only does the Canadian government have no strategy for dealing with a global recession; the country is run by a dictator who has set a precedent for banishing the people’s elected representatives from Parliament when they challenge one of his decisions. Having tried it once and succeeded, how much easier it will be for him, or some successor, to ignore Parliament again.
I’m sorry that Mme Jean got it wrong. This incident surely will long outlive the ”King-Byng Affair“ when a previous Governor General refused to take a prime minister’s advice and a new government was formed which, unable to secure the confidence of Parliament soon collapsed leasing to another election. Now, applying the precedent prime ministers will be free to dismiss Parliament whenever it gets in their way. No longer does Harper need to worry about Senate reform, he can just ignore it and adjourn Parliament until his well funded propaganda machine has softened-up the populace for an election campaign against competitors who, thanks to his imposed poverty, can’t afford more than a couple of photocopied flyers, a free website and a YouTube video. Sad, the repercussions these things can have.
I am concerned as well tonight for the impact these events may have on next week’s provincial election in Québec. While ranting that the Liberal Party and New Democratic Parity were collaborating with the devil Bloc Québecois, Harper has stoked nationalist fires in that province and given new life to the Parti Québecois. Won’t it be a nice pickle, should we awake Tuesday to a majority PQ government armed to initiate another separation project. Harper didn’t mind misrepresenting the very limited role of the BQ in the collaborative government proposal while ignoring that he had signed an almost identical accord to attempt to bring down a previous Liberal government, as had his previous party of choice, the Canadian Alliance, or care about the affect his lies would have on national unity. It was in the same vain that he accused the Liberals and New Democrats of a secret back-room deal that was somehow ”evil“ compared to the saintly back-room deal between the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties which created the monster which is the Conservative Party (nothing progressive, no alliances) today. The only truth he cares about is his own quest for absolute power.
We are seeing evil and I am sad for Canada.
