In light of the media storm surrounding the events that took place in Ottawa last week regarding the possible formation of a new federal government made up of various factions from the opposition parties of the Liberals and New Democrats with the support of the Bloc Quebecois, some of the more interesting viewing on television was the reaction from voters across the country, most specifically the reaction from Albertans.
And they had plenty to be upset about.
After all, by this past Monday – or anytime thereafter, Alberta could’ve gone from having 27 of 28 provincial seats as sitting members of the ruling party, five cabinet ministers and the prime minister, to having just one – and she would’ve been representing the NDP.
If you’ve been watching the local coverage of the issue, you’ll already know that a vast majority of voters in this province could not quite get their heads around the fact that just a few weeks after the Conservatives won the most recent election, they were on the verge of being bounced out of office by the other three opposition parties, regardless of the fact that all three lagged far behind the ruling party when all the ballots had been counted.
Shouts of, “this is Communism!” and “this isn’t fair because Harper won the election,” and “this isn’t democracy!” were heard over and over again on television and radio as stations encourage their viewers and listeners to call in and express their opinions. Many had also taken it upon themselves to point fingers at the opposition and accuse them of selling out the country and that both Liberal leader Stephan Dion and NDP leader Jack Layton were crybabies who could not accept defeat and would go to any lengths to gain power.
But of course, nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, if Albertans are looking for someone to blame, they might want to start with their own guy because whether they accept it or not, this entire mess all comes down to the antics of the prime minister who simply could not keep his ego in check, refused to budge in negotiations in any way, shape or form, and paid little to no respect to his opponents who intended to join forces and very could’ve thrown the government out of office and formed their own government.
And who can blame them?
Since he took office in 2006, the prime minister has taken a very uncooperative and belligerent attitude towards the opposition and when he was on the verge of being overthrown, rather then trying to work the situation out, he instead reverted to lies and fear mongering in an attempt to save his bacon.
For days the media was reporting that the coalition involved only the Liberals and the NDP – not the Bloc. Had they power, the Bloc would’ve had no representation in a new cabinet and had only committed their support for 18-months. Obviously members of the Bloc had also lost faith in the government and saw the coalition as a viable alternative to at least try to get the financial crisis under control.
But despite the truth, the prime minister continued to assault the Liberals and the NDP for making a, ‘deal with the devil’, when in fact, they have done no such thing. Unlike him.
In the past few days both Jack Layton and Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe have come forward and stated that the prime minister in fact, approached the Bloc, the NDP and the Governor General with exactly the same proposal as the coalition was considering, to bring down the minority government of Paul Martin in September of 2004. Yet rather than fess up to it, he instead chose to lash out at the opposition in yet another glaring example of ‘the pot calling the kettle black’.
And if that isn’t bad enough, when push came to shove and the gloves came off, rather than stepping up to the plate, he turned tail and ran off to hide behind the Governor General.
What kind of leadership is that?
In grossly underestimating his opponents, the prime minister decided he would simply eliminate them altogether by cutting the taxpayer’s subsidy to the opposition party, which is a critical lifeline for their survival and was the linchpin that kicked off the whole mess.
Oh, and for the environmentalists out there, that would have meant the end of the federal Green Party, and all the rest as well.
While the Conservatives gained enough seats to form the government, it was a minority government, meaning the combined seats of the opposition are more than the combined seats of the government.
Throw in the prime minister’s attempt to undermine democracy by cutting the subsidy that keeps them alive, and you have a recipe for disaster – at least for the Conservatives and their supporters.
But it gets worse.
In his attempts to crush any opposition to him, the prime minister for all intents and purposes, virtually ignored every other issue facing Canadians – most notably our crumbling economy, and the opposition finally said enough is enough.
On the rare occasions when he wasn’t attacking the opposition, the prime minister tried to convince voters that he and his party are on top of the economic situation and have a plan to ensure stability and protect jobs. But while he claims to be giving the economy his full attention and urgency, he has yet to come forward with anything at all.
If he is that committed to fixing the economy, why won’t he and his party fast-track their ‘cure-all’ budget? If it’s that much of an urgency, why does he keep telling Canadians to wait until they release their budget in January of next year? Shouldn’t he have already been moving on this several months ago?
Clearly, he is simply buying time because by the looks of it, he has no plan at all yet he expects all of us to sit and wait for another two months while the economy goes down the drain. It’s also interesting to note that while the prime minister managed to get his request of an adjournment granted by the Governor General last Thursday morning, just an hour or so later the federal Superintendent of Bankruptcy announced that bankruptcies in Canada rose by 7.1 per cent from September to October and are up by 21.1 per cent from last year. Even more disturbing is the fact that Alberta’s bankruptcy rate rose by a whopping 50.9 per cent from October of last year.
But it didn’t end there. Over the weekend Statistics Canada announced that 71,000 more jobs had been lost nationwide just in November. How many more businesses in the province will go belly-up, and how many more jobs will be lost from now until the end of January while Nero fiddles is anyone’s guess.
Oh sure, the economy out here in Alberta is booming – or at least it was booming. But we have to look at the big picture and that picture isn’t very pretty, especially for hundreds of thousands of workers in southern Ontario and Quebec – which brings us to another reality that many Albertans seem to be overlooking.
While things have been rosy for decades out here and the province’s population has boomed to around 3.5 million, it’s small potatoes considering that the city of Toronto alone has more than 5 million residents.
In fact, Ontario’s population currently sits at around 11 million while Quebec is hovering at around 9.5 million and all the oil in the world won’t change that fact. But rather than dealing – or at least trying to deal with the financial crisis to protect those jobs, the prime minister chose instead to try and wipeout the opposition, and the chaos we all saw last week is the results of the prime minister’s negligence.
So when the question comes around to where is the democracy in this country, the answer is all around us and we’re seeing it in action from front row seats.
After all, when the opposition is eliminated, the government has a free hand to do whatever they want, whenever they want to whomever they want and are accountable to no one.
History has shown us time and time again that a one-party system is an extremely dangerous thing, especially for those living under that system. Examples are everywhere, even today. China, North Korea, Cuba and Iran are just a few of the countries that exist – or at least try to, in a one-party system and as the old saying goes, “absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
So to answer a question with another question, when Albertans wonder where is the democracy in Canada; it’s up to you to decide. Is a one-party system such as those listed above more or less democratic that a system with multiple parties who have the ability to hold the government accountable for their actions, or in this case, their inactions?
It might be a bit of a rude wake-up call, but it’s time for most in this province to smell the coffee and accept the fact that in a democratic country such as ours, the majority rules and in the current situation, the opposition has the majority of the seats and the majority of the votes, and at the drop of a hat they are perfectly within their right to overthrow the government if they have lost confidence in the ruling party.
And that, in essence, is the true definition of a democracy.