The "people's commons", a farce

Last week, Parliament Hill, the people's commons, was turned into a giant game of Risk, with armies of strategists and advisors running about threatening to take over the world. (cue eery music…)

The setting was simple enough. The Bloc and the Conservatives weren't happy. Bigshot Martin, they claimed, never listened to the little ol' opposition. "That's not fair!", they cried. So in a streak of ADD-inspired anxiety, the Bloc and Conservatives set out for revenge. They put an amendment to the Speech from the Throne before the House of Commons that threatened to bring down the minority Liberal government in a vote of confidence (an ironic term for political support considering that one doubts whether any Canadian has confidence in politicians at all!).

The stage was set: if the amendment passed, a couple of renegade white men in conservative suits would claim victory and walk down to Rideau Hall to appoint Stephen Harper as Canada's new leader -- worse still, there could even be a new election called, after only three days in session; if the amendment was defeated, and the government retained the confidence of the House, all would be forgotten… perhaps a few white hairs here or there, but Canadians could go to sleep that night knowing that the government they voted into office was still there.

Tensions were high. Party officials scrambled to wheel in all the MP's who apparently couldn't get up from the cafeteria's sensational roast beef dinner (I can't verify that beef was on the menu, but it was definitely dinner time).

The media was loving it. Reality television at its finest. Why cover the story of a fat, naked guy getting kicked off a deserted island on Survivor when you can cover a fat-cat Liberal government getting kicked out of a country of 30 million?

So what happened? I'll tell you what happened: NOTHING. The boys all met for a little heart-to-heart and everything was taken care of just in time to get the word out to all Members that the government was willing to let the amendment pass. In the end, the Bloc got what they wanted (a semantic modification along the lines of inter-jurisdictional affirmative action) and the Conservatives got what they wanted (essentially, to say "boo" so loudly that Martin would shit his pants). And what did the Canadian public get? Like I said before, absolutely nothing. Unless you count a mountain of egos, in which case we got a lot of that.

There is no doubt that Harper knew that Martin would cave and cater to opposition demands. And for this, I've lost a lot of respect for the Harper. Despite my concern with some of his policies and ideas, I've always respected his intellect and political sense. No more. This pseuo-coup merely served to demonstrate how low Harper is willing to go to burn the Liberals. Instead of trying to prove himself as a productive force in a minority Parliament, Harper has descended into the ranks piracy.

For a man who rides on slogans of renewing accountability and honesty to government, Harper's dash for the captain's chair has revealed himself as no more than just another in a long line of phony beacons of integrity in Canadian politics.

posted by G E @ 1:41 p.m.