Six months after winning a majority government, the real Stephen Harper has emerged, with a broad smile and a big swagger.
Harper at last is able to push through the raft of legislation that had piled up on his to-do list during five years of minority rule, bills thwarted by a once able-bodied opposition.
Among measures now in the government’s legislative hopper are bills to nix the long-gun registry; kill the Wheat Board’s monopoly on selling Western grain; address crime; redistribute Commons seats to give growing provinces more MPs; and eliminate taxpayer subsidies as well as union and corporate loans for political parties.
Minority governments can toil for years without getting the bills they sponsor passed, as the Harper Conservatives know from bitter experience.
Now, a hobbled opposition has changed everything. Not since the time of Jean Chretien’s Liberal majorities through the 1990s has a PM had such unmitigated clout.
And it’s not just that Conservatives now own a majority of seats both in the Commons and Senate. Harper’s good fortune goes beyond that.
Both official Opposition New Democrats and third-place Liberals are without permanent leaders. An NDP chief won’t be chosen until next March, a Liberal leader in 2013.
So Harper has not been inclined to unleash hyper-partisan attack dogs on his political opponents, as in the past. As a result, he looks a lot more collegial, less mean.
The most onerous opposition Harper has confronted to date has been in reaction to his crime bill, with Quebec and Ontario in particular protesting either for budgetary or philosophical reasons. And Quebec is demanding provincial data from the soon-to-be defunct gun registry be transferred to Quebec City.
But Harper has been undeterred and more than ready to make maximum use of his majority, limiting parliamentary debate numerous times.
The prime minister has made a few appointments he might not have got away with before last May — two Supreme Court judges, one of whom was criticized for not being fluent in French, the other for being judicially inexperienced; and an auditor-general, also not bilingual.
Controversially, the latest incarnation of the Harper government has shown itself prepared to force strikers back to work, as it did with mail carriers and was prepared to do with Air Canada employees.
Without a vigorous opposition in the Commons, Harper finds himself freer to travel and play the role of global statesman, unafraid of being absent for votes that could topple his government.
Accordingly, Harper has jetted in the past six months to France, on three occasions; New York, twice; Greece; Afghanistan; Brazil; Colombia; Costa Rica; Honduras; Italy; and Australia.
His government has been helped, too, by the fact that Canada’s unemployment rate is a moderate 7.3 per cent.
The public has been satisfied to let the government mind the till and continue pursuing its balanced-budget goal.
Meanwhile, a renewed determination by Harper to push a Conservative agenda has become apparent, with some recent decisions relating to national symbols.
The government is enforcing a right to fly the flag and reintroducing a royal designation for Canada’s air force and navy.
At the same time, it earned widespread respect by awarding $35 billion in shipbuilding contracts through a process free of patronage or favouritism. Polls show Conservatives have roughly the same support as in last May’s election.
And of course, with a majority, the Harper government has been able to avoid significant action on some left-of-centre preoccupations, like health care financing and climate-change remediation.
At this point, Harper’s biggest challenge may be to lose the smile and drop the swagger.
Origin
Source: Vancouver Sun
Harper at last is able to push through the raft of legislation that had piled up on his to-do list during five years of minority rule, bills thwarted by a once able-bodied opposition.
Among measures now in the government’s legislative hopper are bills to nix the long-gun registry; kill the Wheat Board’s monopoly on selling Western grain; address crime; redistribute Commons seats to give growing provinces more MPs; and eliminate taxpayer subsidies as well as union and corporate loans for political parties.
Minority governments can toil for years without getting the bills they sponsor passed, as the Harper Conservatives know from bitter experience.
Now, a hobbled opposition has changed everything. Not since the time of Jean Chretien’s Liberal majorities through the 1990s has a PM had such unmitigated clout.
And it’s not just that Conservatives now own a majority of seats both in the Commons and Senate. Harper’s good fortune goes beyond that.
Both official Opposition New Democrats and third-place Liberals are without permanent leaders. An NDP chief won’t be chosen until next March, a Liberal leader in 2013.
So Harper has not been inclined to unleash hyper-partisan attack dogs on his political opponents, as in the past. As a result, he looks a lot more collegial, less mean.
The most onerous opposition Harper has confronted to date has been in reaction to his crime bill, with Quebec and Ontario in particular protesting either for budgetary or philosophical reasons. And Quebec is demanding provincial data from the soon-to-be defunct gun registry be transferred to Quebec City.
But Harper has been undeterred and more than ready to make maximum use of his majority, limiting parliamentary debate numerous times.
The prime minister has made a few appointments he might not have got away with before last May — two Supreme Court judges, one of whom was criticized for not being fluent in French, the other for being judicially inexperienced; and an auditor-general, also not bilingual.
Controversially, the latest incarnation of the Harper government has shown itself prepared to force strikers back to work, as it did with mail carriers and was prepared to do with Air Canada employees.
Without a vigorous opposition in the Commons, Harper finds himself freer to travel and play the role of global statesman, unafraid of being absent for votes that could topple his government.
Accordingly, Harper has jetted in the past six months to France, on three occasions; New York, twice; Greece; Afghanistan; Brazil; Colombia; Costa Rica; Honduras; Italy; and Australia.
His government has been helped, too, by the fact that Canada’s unemployment rate is a moderate 7.3 per cent.
The public has been satisfied to let the government mind the till and continue pursuing its balanced-budget goal.
Meanwhile, a renewed determination by Harper to push a Conservative agenda has become apparent, with some recent decisions relating to national symbols.
The government is enforcing a right to fly the flag and reintroducing a royal designation for Canada’s air force and navy.
At the same time, it earned widespread respect by awarding $35 billion in shipbuilding contracts through a process free of patronage or favouritism. Polls show Conservatives have roughly the same support as in last May’s election.
And of course, with a majority, the Harper government has been able to avoid significant action on some left-of-centre preoccupations, like health care financing and climate-change remediation.
At this point, Harper’s biggest challenge may be to lose the smile and drop the swagger.
Origin
Source: Vancouver Sun
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