Our Wondrous and Beautiful Federal Parliament

I am not posting all that much because my thoughts are focused where the action is - the Ontario general election and the MMP referendum. But because I work for Ontario government, I won't post on those topics.

I can say that I am currently surprised at where we are in Federal politics. This is my first time as an adult living through a minority government era, and oh my non-existent lord, it is messy. I am astonished that we are heading toward an election that nobody wants. I am particularly embarrassed at the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois. They have decided to make demands with respect to the Throne Speech that they know to be impossible. I understand all the Machiavellian reasons why they need to do this, but I have to say I'm disappointed in the whole mess of it. It seems so crass, dishonest, and insulting to the intelligence of voters. If you ever go in and say "we want all federal spending in areas of provincial jurisdiction to stop" or "we want an immediate withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan" or you won't support the throne speech, you are never allowed to pretend you care about "making Parliament work for Canadians, ever, ever again. Honestly, you make me need to plug my nose.

I'm also amused to see the Liberal party behaving like Tories used to behave for years. I have a dear friend, who I love, but who gets most excited when there is a party leader to depose. I have told this friend that this is the way eternal opposition parties behave. They can't win the big fight so they focus their energies on fights they can.

Personally I don't think a party should depose a leader unless they have someone better waiting. The Liberals don't. They ended up with Dion because of the absolute antipathy certain camps have for each other. Rae and Ignatieff are both widely loathed carpet baggers. Kennedy is still unknown outside of Ontario. Of course, a lot of Dion's leadership rivals and their supporters think their man is best and want to see Dion fail. That kind of personal ambition, in and of itself, is a recipe for a lengthy stay in opposition. Just ask the Tories.

I have some free advice for the Liberal party: Keep Stephane Dion. Go into an election. You'll lose the election but your focus in the campaign should be on introducing Dion to Canadians. He should make a speech about how he wishes he didn't have to fight an election now but he can't support the Throne Speech for obvious reasons. He's official opposition. He has the credibility for this. Discuss his disappointment on how the other opposition parties are behaving and go into the election on message looking relaxed and talking about the things he's good at: Trudeau Federalism and the Environment. Showcase his intelligence and, most of all, his compassion. Let him do a lot of interviews in Quebec where he is unapologetically federalist. He needs to win that fight on his own terms with the vision he believes in in his heart. He doesn't need to win over the ardent nationalists. He needs to win over the moderates.

After this election... keep Stephane Dion. I predict that two or four years later, he'll be Prime Minister of Canada. (albeit most probably in a slim minority government of his own). The media will all talk about how Dion turned it around, and Harper's fall. All the errors of arrogance or what have you that the Harper government has made.

If you dump Dion, you will set the party back one election cycle and I suspect will have to do the whole re-introduction thing all over again.

This, by the way, is exactly what I said about Stephen Harper a few years ago. When I worked for the Liberals, we sat around talking about what the Tories should do. At the time Martin was up and Harper was down and the general consensus at the table was that Harper had to be replaced by someone more charismatic who would resonate with voters - a Danny Williams, perhaps. I said keep Harper. They said I was crazy. Likewise, When my aforementioned friend was trying to dump Harper I told that friend that that friend was being ridiculous.

And who is the Prime Minister now? Uh huh. Oh yeah. Oh snap.

I am sooooooooooo smart.

S-M-R-T.

smart.

(and, apparently, insufferably smug. ;-) )