The potentially perilous state of national unity will be front and centre as politicians confront the new reality of an aggressive separatist government in Quebec.
The proper role of government in our lives will be further sharpened as a key point of debate, as the governing Tories continue to cut the size of the federal government.
The quintessential Canadian economic dilemma — exploiting the country’s vast natural resources without spoiling the environment — will create sharp political divisions.
The country’s long-term economic prospects will be under review as politicians, business groups and others debate the wisdom of seeking free trade deals with economic giants such as Europe, India and even communist China. There will be a strong focus on Canada’s place on the world stage, as tensions over Iran continue and the bloody civil war in Syria threatens to spill over to other Middle East countries.
Meanwhile, amid growing political polarization, there comes a warning that the country is descending into a society where ignorance reigns over reason.
The stakes are high for the three major federal parties. Their goal is to define themselves in the minds of millions of Canadian voters, and – more important – to define their political enemies.
That definition must begin to take shape now and be steadily burned into the public consciousness, say political insiders.
So count on Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s governing Conservatives to throw everything at their biggest political threat — the NDP — in an effort to convince Canadians that the New Democrats would somehow destroy the economy and impose a long list of taxes if given power.
Moreover, emboldened by the majority power they secured in the May 2011 election, the Tories are intent on using that clout for the remaining three years of their mandate to press ahead with an agenda that includes billions of dollars in government cuts, diminished federal environmental oversight on private-sector energy projects, and cuts to the public pension system for future generations of seniors. All have sparked controversy.
But Harper is not backing down, even as public opinion polls showing the Tories’ popularity has dropped, leaving them in a tie with the NDP.
“We’re putting our foot on the gas,” the prime minister said in early July, explaining that he was sticking with the same cabinet ministers because he wants them to continue with the Tory agenda this autumn.
“I’ve told officials in Ottawa the majority is not time to rest.’’
“I think that one step at a time, I think we’re moving the country in the right direction,’’ said Harper.
Meanwhile, watch for Tom Mulcair’s New Democrats to use the fall session of Parliament to try to dispel any notion that they are wide-eyed socialists. Rather, they will increasingly portray themselves as responsible, middle-of-the-road politicians who are a safe bet for voters in the next election.
“New Democrats are fighting for a Canada to achieve the long-term growth we need while protecting our environment, Mulcair told MPs at the party’s caucus retreat earlier this month. “We can do both. We have to do both. We’re fighting for a balanced, 21st century economy that’s prosperous and progressive.”
That leaves the once-mighty Liberals, flailing aimlessly after three electoral defeats, and probably facing the most critical decision of their long history at an April, 2013 leadership convention: Do they choose a young political celebrity with sex appeal to lead them out of the wilderness? Or is the untested Justin Trudeau just too much of a risk?
For now, interim Liberal leader Bob Rae is trying to woo Canadians into supporting his party as a force for national unity — instead of being drawn to the political left or right.
“Canadians don’t want to be forced into a false choice between the Tea Party and the Occupy movement,” Rae told his caucus this month.
“As the ideological divide between the Conservatives and NDP widens, the Liberal Party of Canada will be there with a vision for a government based on innovation, leadership and unity.”
In the midst of this political gamesmanship, there lies an electorate that is dangerously tuned out and annoyed by politicians. The trend was confirmed in a poll conducted for Postmedia News earlier in the summer.
According to the Ipsos Reid survey, 95 per cent of Canadians feel politicians in Ottawa have nothing in common (44 per cent) or only a little in common (51 per cent) with average Canadians.
Earlier this month, the state of Canadian politics — and in particular, the Conservative government’s approach to governing — was dissected in a speech at Carleton University by one respected political observer.
Allan Gregg, who was the official pollster for the Progressive Conservative party from 1979 to 1993, says Canadian democracy is experiencing major changes that undermine the importance of reason to political debate and public policy.
Gregg compared politics in Canada in 2012 to the authoritarian society imagined by George Orwell in the classic novel 1984.
“There are some unsettling parallels going on here that we ignore at our peril.”
Gregg said that just as the novel showed how governments can use the ignorance of populations to create an authoritarian state that ignores the value of reason, the current Canadian government is adopting a “troubling” approach that employs misinformation.
“It seems as though our government’s use of evidence and facts as the bases of policy is declining, and in their place, dogma, whim and political expediency are on the rise,” said Gregg.
He added that Canadians now seem to be living in a “zero-sum society” that is increasingly polarized.
This explains the emergence of groups such as the Occupy movement which protests the gap between the rich and poor, and also the disdain among some in the middle class over “pampered” public servants, he said.
“Once the population starts to segment itself into ‘us versus them,’ anyone with a vested interest in exacerbating the rift can easily till that soil,” warned Gregg.
“And that is clearly what is happening in the political process today. On one hand, political parties no longer see the need to reach out and expand their base beyond their core constituency, because their core constituency is often at odds with the voters whom they otherwise might want to attract. To the contrary, it makes more sense to vilify these voters, as a way to motivate your core.”
“A vicious cultural wheel therefore is turned by a political one. A fearful, divided citizenry fights off uncertainty by protecting its own turf; politicians exploit this division by choosing sides and offering simplistic solutions to address these fears; and the population seeks solace in the simplistic solutions.
“So instead of trying to bridge these differences through consensus and finding compromise based on reason, what we see all too often today is the politics of polarization, over-torqued partisanship and dogma.”
Original Article
Source: ottawa citizen
Author: Ottawa Citizen
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