Dysfunctional Parliament

8 September 2008



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Canadian PM Calls Snap Election

For the third time in four years, Canadians will go to the polls in a general election. The latest has come about by the dissolution of what Prime Minister Stephen Harper has called a “dysfunctional parliament.” Polls put his Conservative Party within striking distance of forming a majority government. Polling day is October 14.

The opposition calls the Harper government the most right-wing in Canadian history. PM Harper backed with attack on Iraq-Nam, and he increased the size of the Canadian forces in Afghanistan. At the same time, his government withdrew Canada from the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gases.

Mr. Harper countered, “Between now and October 14, Canadians will choose a government to look out for their interests at a time of global economic trouble. They will choose between direction or uncertainty; between common sense or risky experiments; between steadiness or recklessness.”

Were this a straight two-party fight, or if there were proportional representation, Mr. Harper would probably lose. However, the Liberals and the New Democrats will find their share of the vote eroding even if they come to some kind of electoral compact. The Greens have increased their standing in the minds of voters. It probably isn’t enough to elect Greens, but enough to defeat Liberals and NDPers.

Looming over all of this is the Bloc Quebecois, led by Gilles Duceppe, who claims his separatist bunch offer the best chance of stopping the Tories from reaching a majority. Mr. Duceppe even sees an advantage to linking Mr. Harper to President Bush, “"Like Mr. Bush's Republicans, Stephen Harper's Conservatives lobby for the free distribution of firearms, for censorship, and they would like to withdraw the acquired rights of women [on abortion]. . . . It is that ideology that Stephen Harper would like to impose without reserve on Canada and on Quebec in obtaining a majority.” The good news is that the Bloc has focused more on making Quebec a better place than on making it an independent place.

© Copyright 2008 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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