Opposition Parties: Out of the Sandbox and Into Real Politics

Since the global financial crisis burst onto the world stage so that even obtuse people like the members of the Bush administration had to notice it, Canadian politicians and the Canadian media have been noteworthy for their head-in-the sand responses to what is happening.

While a large majority of Canadians voted against the Conservatives, the outcome of the election confirmed the surface impression that Canadians had opted for the status quo. Since election day, the mealy-mouthed Canadian media has continued its business-as-usual approach to politics and the economy. On the CBC, Don Newman’s Politics, where the spin never stops, groans on just as before the financial crisis. The At Issue Panel, made up of people who subscribe to the economic and political paradigm that has gone down in flames, continues as in a time warp.

Just beneath the surface of federal politics and the maundering media, however, everything is as different in Canada as elsewhere. The economic crisis is spreading apace and an increasing number of people are its victims. More will be with every passing week.

That the Conservatives are back to their old game of turning secondary issues into confidence matters has become apparent with the government’s decision to slash outlays to political parties. Instead of planning a massive program to rebuild our infrastructure, which ought to be the order of the day, the Harper government is demonstrating that it is utterly bankrupt.

The time has come for the three opposition parties to get out of the political sandbox in which they have been living and to offer the citizenry a real alternative.

During the election campaign, the three opposition parties took plenty of pot shots at each other on a host of issues. By the end of the campaign, the reality of the financial crisis had made the platforms of all three parties look dated and rather ridiculous. The Liberals and the NDP each asserted, for instance, that the government would not run a deficit with them at the helm, a proposition that was perfectly idiotic by election day.

To keep its programs intact, and to mount an infrastructure program to repair the damage of years of neglect, and to create and protect jobs, the federal government needs to run a deficit.

The essential difference between the Conservatives on the one hand and the Liberals, NDP and the Bloc on the other, is not their positions on particular issues. It is that the opposition parties are open to the need for a fundamental shift to face up to what is happening. Unlike the Conservatives, who are waiting for an Obama bailout to reignite the Canadian economy, the opposition parties are alive to the need to take sweeping action.

The moment has come for the leaders of the three parties, along with their advisors, to spend serious time together to work out the program for an alternative government, committed to protecting jobs and investing in the future.

Having agreed, they should make their case to the Canadian people, defeat the Harper government in the House, go to the Governor General and present themselves as able to form a government that can command majority support in the House. That government can be a coalition, with all three parties formally a part of it, with two of them in it, or with only the Liberals forming the new ministry. What matters is the commitment of all three parties to support the program they have drawn up. Let’s get on with it.