Harper's record through his first two minority governments (49 per cent) is underperformed only by Progressive Conservative prime minister Joe Clark.
Clark's poor record (21 per cent) was in part due to his brief and tumultuous run in office; he only had time to introduce 28 bills before he was ousted on a confidence vote.
Former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin, who also grappled with a minority government, has the third worst record. He was able to pass 46 of the 82 government bills his cabinet introduced, for a success rate of 56 per cent.
Success rates have been on a relatively steady decline for decades, falling significantly since Mackenzie King's reign between 1936 and 1948, when the Liberal prime minister's success rate was nearly 96 per cent, according to data available on the parliamentary website.
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"They're pretty low percentages," Ned Franks, a parliamentary expert and Queen's University professor, said of Harper's record. "But such is the nature of a minority government."
In a minority government, even politically innocuous legislation sometimes gets held up, eventually dying with prorogation or the start of a general election campaign.
Still, other minority governments have fared better.
Progressive Conservative John Diefenbaker, for example, had a 90 per cent batting average during his first minority, and a 51 per cent success rate in his second.
Liberal Lester B. Pearson, who led two minority governments in the 1960s, had an overall success rate of 91 per cent.
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Now, with a majority in hand, it seems Harper has his sights set on catching up to his predecessors.
Since Harper won his coveted majority in May, his government has been pushing bill after bill through the House of Commons -- often using tactics to curtail debate and speed up the long two-chamber Parliamentary test.
"Five years of not getting your stuff through will get to you," Franks said. "Now that he has his majority, he's just pumping everything through. I think his (success rate) for this Parliament will be well over 80 per cent."
Just this week, the government twice moved time allocation -- a tactic that sets time limits on a given stage of the legislative process.
First, it was on Bill C-19, which aims to dismantle and destroy the long-gun registry, then C-11, which looks to change Canada's copyright laws.
Those instances bring the government's use of time allocation close to 20 since September.
Since this Parliament started in June, Harper has pushed through 11 of the 28 bills his majority government has introduced.
Others, including the massive omnibus crime bill, are poised to become law.
"A big part of this is the difference between having a minority and a majority," Franks said. "But the other part is that (Harper) will do just about anything to get his legislation through."
Original Article
Source: global news
Author: Amy Minsky
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