Sunday, October 21, 2007

Stephane: Just say no to Harper

This is from the Toronto Star. I certainly agree with Griffiths but I fear it might already be too late. I doubt that Dion even has any control of what happens in the party. He let Rae welcome the Afghan panel. Just setting up the panel ignored Dion's demand that Harper come clean on the future of the mission. Why welcome it! Already Dion has followed Ignatieff's advice not to vote down the throne speech. There are no principles left. Perhaps Harper will make some terrible mistake and perhaps the public will not care that Dion is unprincipled and he will manage to build up Liberal fortunes again, but if I were a betting person I wouldn't bet on it.


Stéphane: Just say no to Harper

Oct 21, 2007 04:30 AM
Rudyard Griffiths

The game of electoral cat and mouse has begun. Sporting what could only be described as a Cheshire-like grin, Prime Minister Stephen Harper clearly enjoyed watching Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion squirm in his seat as the throne speech was debated this week.

From calling for the extension of Canada's mission in Afghanistan to 2011, to serving notice that Canada is giving up on the Kyoto Protocol as a means to control climate change, to promising to devolve more powers to the provinces, the Conservatives have cobbled together a legislative agenda designed to give Dion a fatal case of political indigestion. Harper is clearly hoping that the Liberals will buck at one or more of the pieces of legislation that will flow from the throne speech and hand the Conservatives the federal election they are raring to fight.

The conventional wisdom among pundits, and Liberal insiders, is that Dion must gird his loins and ensure, by whatever means necessary, the government's survival in the months to come. In short, avoid the election that is surely Harper's to lose so that the cash-starved and fratricidal Liberal party can live to fight another day.

As comforting as a "head-in-the-sand" strategy might be for the embattled Liberals, it represents a fundamental misinterpretation of Dion's strengths and ultimately increases the likelihood of a Conservative majority.

Dion's credibility as a prime minister in waiting is the product of a public persona unique among recent federal leaders. He is not a streetwise political brawler in the mould of Jean Chrétien. Nor is he a too-smart-by-half political charmer like Brian Mulroney.

In contrast, Dion is the rarest of all breeds: the principled politician. This is a man who was vilified in his native Quebec for his steadfast defence of federalism, culminating in the deeply unpopular Clarity Act. He is earnest to a fault in his environmentalism and personal probity. In sum, he is Canada's village curate, the last guy you want to have a beer with but the one politician you might actually trust to babysit your children.

By signalling that he will not bring the government down on the throne speech, Dion can only postpone an election by either supporting bills on the environment, federalism and taxation that run counter to his core principles, or facilitate their passage by keeping Liberal members away from the House. This will be especially wounding when it comes to legislation that will further limit the federal government's ability to create new national social programs. While the Liberals can vote against such measures, the fact they allowed the throne speech to pass – thereby paving the way for the Conservatives' devolutionist agenda to proceed with the Bloc's support – risks permanently tarnishing Dion's hard-won federalist credentials.

The reality is that even if the Liberals avoid triggering an autumn rush to the polls, their leader will have lost the public's confidence that Dion is a man of principle. Instead, by Christmas he will look like any other recent Liberal leader, a power-hungry and rudderless politician, who to boot lacks the "tough guy" image voters respected in Chrétien and increasingly associate with Harper.

To save his political soul and his party Dion must say "no" to the Faustian bargain his handlers are pressing on him and instead bring the government down, as soon as possible, on legislation that gives the Liberals a fighting chance in an election of holding the Conservatives to a minority or winning one of their own.



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Rudyard Griffiths is the co-founder of the Dominion Institute.

rudyard@dominion.ca

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