On The Possibility of A Coalition Gov’t in Canada

On The Possibility of A Coalition Gov’t in Canada

There is a supposed Chinese curse that goes as follows: “May you live in interesting times.” We in Bayan-Toronto, for our part, think this a blessing. After all, just as it is interesting things, interesting people, and interesting work that make life worth living; times that are interesting are times when we can learn more of the truth. The Canadian people are, therefore, lucky to have entered such interesting times.

Stephen Harper, a man normally shrewd in divide and rule tactics finally overstepped his bounds and almost managed to snatch the Conservative Party’s defeat less than two months after its election victory. So used to getting his way due to the financially induced spinelessness of the Liberal Party, Harper forgot that the one principle that the Liberals fervently clung to was self-preservation. In attempting to bankrupt the Liberals by proposing to remove government subsidies to political parties, Harper ended up stiffening the spines of Dion and company.

A marriage of convenience was struck. Suddenly vows to pass a motion of non-confidence and proposals for a coalition-government were in the air. A signed agreement between the three opposition parties soon followed. The opposition blowback was now real.

True to his conservative form, Harper descended into hysterics. Trusting to the bad influence of American television on the Canadian population, we then witnessed the utterly absurdity of a Canadian Prime Minister ranting about how his colleagues across the floor are undemocratically stealing his election by the Canadian people. No, Mr. Harper, Canada does not have a US-Presidential system. It has a parliamentary system. The only people who elected you are the people from your riding Calgary West.
Out of options other than courageously admitting his blunder and having his government fall for his stupidity, Harper compliments the Liberals by demonstrating that he too shared their basic principle, namely opportunist self-preservation. He runs off to hide behind the skirt of the one woman his party and himself has repeatedly and so racistly maligned, the Governor General Michaëlle Jean, to beg for the prorogation of Parliament. We now have the unprecedented almost two prorogation of parliament just so that the government can avoid a motion of non-confidence.

Let us be clear, a coalition government is not inherently undemocratic. It is not even unheard of in Canadian politics. The Union coalition government brought confederation. Meanwhile, not only is proroguing parliament even before it gets started just to avoid a motion of non-confidence opening up new territory whose terrain we know not; this king of prorogation is definitely undemocratic. Coalition government can actually bring certain benefits. For one, it forces compromises between parties. More of Canada is, therefore, represented. Two, pace Harper, it brings out into the open some of what are normally backroom deals within political parties. The deal for a proposed coalition government is, therefore, miles more democratic than Harper’s own backroom wheeling and dealing to try and bring to his side the most spineless and greedy in the Liberal party.

We, Filipinos in Canada, are reminded in a small way by these events of what is happening in our homeland. A head of government afraid to face the legislature, reliant on skullduggery, backroom wheeling and dealing, whipping hysteria and chauvinism, falsifying facts, interested more in narrow personal and party self-interest, a congenital neoliberal ideologue blind to the historical refutation of such dogmas, can only bring disaster to working people. Is it any wonder that with their shared anti-people pro-corporate ideology, political opportunism, tactical shrewdness, viciousness and hubris, that Harper maintains silence on the gross human rights violations perpetrated by the US-Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) regime, despite international condemnation of such?

The Filipino people are working hard to remove the US-GMA regime from power! What will the Canadian people do regarding Harper? We hope that the Canadian people well understand that we and other migrant communities are their genuine friends, not the corporate parties that play parliament. We say this because Canada is entering what could be a long a difficult crises. We did not cause this crisis; the corporate elite and their political representatives such as Harper are the ones responsible. Yet, going by Canadian history, we not those responsible are likely to be blamed for these problems. We remind our friends the Canadian people to resist the racist an anti-immigrant hysteria that is bound to be whipped up by those with power. Scape goating people of colour and migrants is just a smokescreen behind which to hide attacks against all working people.

Bayan-Toronto
December 6, 2008