As I sit at work organizing field files from projects over the summer that need to be filed away permanently, I’m anxious to see the outcome of the meeting between Harper and Jean this morning. Obviously, as a supporter of the Coalition, I hope that Jean will deny prorogration pending Harpers proof that he has the confidence of the house of commons. We will learn all that our great Country is to face within the next few hours. But it does give me cause for some thought.
1) What if Jean denies prorogation like the majority of voting Canadians wish? Will the conservatives attack the office of the governor general? Is this the beginning of the end of Canada being a Commonwealth Country? I have a feeling, that if prorogation is denied that conservatives across the land are going to rise up and denounce the office. They will cry, not for Senate Reform, but for abolishment of the Senate, the Governors General, and everything in the country that is Commonwealth. I think that they would have every right to this opinion, but I personally don’t support it. I think it could possibly be a future referendum question that divides the country. Then again, if Jean goes against the obvious will of the House of Commons and grants prorogation, the pro-coalition supporters might call for removal of the governor general.
2) I think all this week is doing in my mind is cementing the idea of proportional representation/mixed member proportional representation. I voted against it in the Ontario referendum last year mainly because I couldn’t wrap my head around it. This week is giving everyone a good idea of how it would work. Likely, the PM would be Liberal, NDP, or Conservative, but they would have to work with other members of parliament and represent the majority of Canadians, and I don’t think this could be a bad thing any more. Coalition governments would no longer be rare, they would be an every day occasion. Unless a party elected has greater than 50% of the seats, they will have to prove that they can work with other members to pass legislation before they are given power. It took a constitutional crisis, but I’ve finally wrapped my head around the idea of mixed member proportional representation, and I think I like it :).
Thursday, December 04, 2008
A Few Thoughts on a Thursday Morning
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3 comments:
Now that the decision has come out, I truly hope that the opposition/Coalition will respect the GG's ruling. I also hope that *all* parties will work together to get a budget that is in the best interest of Canadians as a whole. I truly hope that all parties make an effort to make this elected government work come the new year.
One point regarding your (1) - I do not believe that all voting Canadians who cast their ballot for any party involved in the Coalition support that coalition. In fact, I know that they don't as various news agencies spoke with people who had cast their ballots for the Liberals or NDP that did not support a coalition. Thus, I don't believe you can say that the majority of voting Canadians were/are in favor of the Coalition - the only way to know that would be if there was an election in which the Coalition ran as 1 party with the knowledge of it being supported by the Bloc for the 1-year they guaranteed.
Niki, I agree with you mostly. I do hope they find a way to work through it, but I'm not sure that is possible with Harper as PM. The opposition parties might demand that he step down before they talk to the conservatives.
As for you point about the majority of Canadians - yes I agree with you, I am speaking on an assumption, however, to say that greater than 1/6 of the people that voted for the Liberal/NDP/Bloq/Greens would vote for them instead is a little optimistic on the conservatives part. the response I have personally heard (not radio/TV) is that people voted for one of the three parties (don't know anyone who voted bloq ;)) is that they prefer the coalition to the alternative (Harper).
We will have to wait and see what happens with all this.
I too was sad to see the GG approve the prorogation today - unless the PM puts some serious effort towards working with the other parties (and I'm afraid that I can't see that happening), we will be facing exactly the same situation in January. Will the PM then request another prorogation in order to again avoid a confidence vote?
I do not particularly want another federal election at this point, but I expect a lot of election-style media spinning over the next 6 weeks.
I have been in favour of proportional representation for many years (and I believe that I have debated the topic with Laura in the past) for the very situation that we are currently presented with.
"The more we get together, together, together,
The more we get together, the happier we'll be!"
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