Bye Bye Parliamentary Legitimacy

Henry Srebrnik, [Summerside, PEI] Journal-Pioneer

In the midst of a worldwide economic crisis, our own political system is in turmoil.

Stéphane Dion’s Liberals, Jack Layton’s New Democrats, and the separatist Bloc Québécois led by Gilles Duceppe have cooked up a deal whereby they will overthrow Stephen Harper’s newly-elected Conservative government and form a coalition to replace him.

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May has announced that she too supports this political troika. In fact she’d like Dion, the presumptive prime minister, to appoint her to the Senate -- so much for the Greens being “different” than the old-line parties.

No one is quite sure whether this power grab will succeed or not. Harper has managed to get the governor general to suspend parliament until the end of January.

“The highest principle of Canadian democracy is that if one wants to be prime minister, one gets one’s mandate from the Canadian people, and not from Quebec separatists,” he declared earlier in the House of Commons.

But one thing is certain. Canada is now leaving, perhaps forever, that small and happy group of countries such as France, Germany, Great Britain, and the United States, which have periodic elections that create stable governments.

We are now joining the Belgiums, Israels, Italys, Polands, Thailands and Ukraines, all those nations where parties come and go, where shifting coalitions create and break governments, where politicians seek power however they may seize it, and where, as a result, chaos reigns and no one quite knows who will be running the show the next week or month.

Their parliaments all look as though we were viewing them through a kaleidoscope.

Since Dion and Layton by themselves do not control enough votes in the House of Commons by themselves, Duceppe will now effectively be in the driver’s seat, making sure Quebec gets its fair share – and then some – of the goodies the coalition will soon be handing out.

No wonder former Quebec premier Jacques Parizeau has announced that he supports this deal. He called the Bloc’s inclusion in the three-party coalition agreement an “impressive victory” for separatism

“This victory sweeps aside any hesitation Quebecers might have had on the presence of the Bloc in Ottawa,” Parizeau said.

Yet Layton has remarked, with a straight face, that this deal will be good for Canada. Too bad we don’t have the equivalent of “Saturday Night Live” in this country. But then, this isn’t even funny, the way Sarah Palin was.

Can we assume, with the Bloc about to effectively become part of Canada’s government, that the Clarity Act setting out specific rules for Quebec’s departure from Canada (which I never thought was worth the paper it’s printed on anyhow) is now dead? Surely this will be understood by Dion and Layton as being one of Duceppe’s demands, even if unspoken?

I wonder what all those people on Prince Edward Island who vote Liberal, no matter what, think of Stéphane Dion embracing a party whose aim is the secession of Quebec.

Can we expect Liberal members of parliament who represent P.E.I. constituencies to break ranks with their party, as it moves forward in its unholy alliance with the separatist Bloc Québécois and the New Democrats? Or do they value power more than principle?