Editorial

The perogie option

Prorogue – what a strange word. Evidently it’s not a misspelling of a food item of Ukrainian origin, but a term for shutting down a session of parliament before its time.
Who knew?
Well, anyone paying attention to the shenanigans in Ottawa over the past couple of weeks does. At the time of this writing, it was on the lips of every political commentator, as one of the more likely courses of action for the embattled Conservative government.
Later in the week, parliament was indeed shut down, temporarily. This buys Stephen Harper’s government a bit of time, but doesn’t solve his essential problem. That being that his government has lost the confidence of the House of Commons.
Normally, when a minority government loses a vote in the House, the Governor General dissolves parliament and an election is called. This time, however, the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Quebecois have formed some sort of coalition. They’ve asked the Governor General to approve a new government, led by Liberal leader Stephane Dion, without the benefit of another election. The possibilities, as things stand at this writing: another election, a new government with Dion as prime minister, or some sort of compromise by Harper that induces the Libs and NDs to back off.
Which one do you like? Or perhaps the question should be, which one do you dislike the least?
The perogie option – (Oops! That’s prorogue) – is just a delaying tactic. It’s hard to see it doing the country any good.
If the opposition is determined to bring down the government, they’ll just do it the next chance they get.
Having got what he wanted from Governor General Michaelle Jean, the onus is squarely on Harper to defuse the crisis in the next few weeks before parliament resumes in late January. If he can’t, if the Liberals and New Democrats are still determined to bring him down, we’ll either face another election, or move straight to a coalition government.
Coalition governments are not unprecedented, although rare enough in Canada. They work elsewhere, in countries where absolute parliamentary majorities are the exception. In those situations (Israel is a good example), there’s no such thing as ruling without making deals with other parties.
Harper is not blameless in the current parliamentary standoff. He’s been playing the bully, and the opposition parties have decided to bully back. Both sides are on pretty shaky ground, but it’s Harper who has the most to lose. He may have to eat crow and compromise like crazy to win a concession from the Liberals and New Democrats in order to stay in power. That would involve a huge loss of face for Harper and his crew.
The best outcome, as annoying and expensive as it would be, is probably another election.