For this Week in Canadian Politics, we have the beginning of the first Conservative headaches, the Liberals starting to put together an opposition, Harper’s Bloc Ace in Hole, and….oh yeah… a new Supreme Court justice.
This Week in Canadian Politics is a summary of postings at Maple Leaf Politics.
Harper’s Problem: Emerson and those Damn Conservatives
The Emerson situation is still simmering. This week former campaign members for Emerson started a “De-Elect Emerson Campaign”. Emerson ran as a Liberal in the January elections, but was named to Harper’s Cabinet as the International Trade Minister and became a Tory. This outraged many in his Vancouver-Kingsway riding, which only 18% voted for the Conservative candidate.
Emerson campaigned heavily for the Liberals in the run up to the January elections. At the time, he was the Minister of Industry in the Martin government. He was critical of the Conservatives on nearly all of their policies. This is what has many people upset. If Emerson was a candidate that seemed to go between the two party’s principles, many could see that he “crossed the aisle” because he finally saw himself as a Tory. However his actions during the election do not paint that sort of picture. It would be like Howard Dean joining the Bush Administration as a Cabinet member.
Emerson tried to play the whole thing down and tried to play ignorant to the whole thing.
“I’m still not much of a political person, as perhaps you can now tell,” the former Liberal MP told CTV’s Question Period on Sunday.
“I’m not the sharpest political knife in the drawer, I quite freely admit that.”
…
“I made a decision that I thought was in the best interests of the people of the riding and the people of the province.
“I realize it may make some people angry, and it may be offensive to some people, but I stand by the decision,” he said, adding he will send a letter to his constituents apologizing to anybody who took offence at his decision.
Emerson may be writing a lot of letters. But is that why he still has not left Vancouver to join the rest of the new Cabinet in Ottawa during transtition talks? Don’t be surprised if we are discussing this next week.
The other issue that seems to be a distraction for Harper is the conservative Canadian Taxpayers Federation which is upset about Harper’s other controversial appointment – Michael Fortier. The Federation is upset that the unelected Fortier was named as not only the Minister of Public Works, but also the to the Treasury Board, which controls departmental spending. That Fortier is not a member of the House, but of the Senate, he does not have to answer questions on the floor of the House from elected members.
Of course, the opposition parties (Liberal and NDP) are very upset that they will not be able to grill Fortier on issues, but what is the deal from the Federation?
“We think it’s inappropriate simply because parliamentary oversight is an essential component of representative democracy,” says Adam Taylor, the CTF’s director of research. “Just as you can’t have taxation without representation, you shouldn’t be able to have spending tax dollars without representation.”
Fortier headed the Conservatives drive into Quebec, and that he delivered the seats, many believe this is his reward. Are the Conservatives creating their own “sponsorship” scandal in Quebec as the Liberals did? If so, they may want to review it, I heard the Liberals didn’t fare real well after that.
The Liberals Build the “Shadow Cabinet”
In Canada, the opposition parties name “shadow Cabinets” to counter the real cabinet. The members of these shadow Cabinets are called critics. Their job is to attack the ruling parties’ policies from the department they are named the critic for.
Interim Liberal Leader Bill Graham has named the first wave of Liberal Critics. Many of them were Department Ministers in the last government, so they have a lot of knowledge on how the government should operate.
Here is a short list of key positions –
Jean Lapierre as industry critic
Ujjal Dosanjh as national defence critic
Hedy Fry as sport and Vancouver Olympics critic
Joe Volpe as treasury board critic
Irwin Cotler as public safety critic
John McCallum as finance critic
Stephane Dion as foreign affairs critic
Ken Dryden as health critic
Scott Brison as environmental critic
Belinda Stronach as transport critic
Graham continue his earlier critique of Harper’s government.
“Canadians did not give the Conservatives a blank cheque to impose their policies on the country,” Graham said.
“Over the next months, we will be working to ensure that Mr. Harper and his government do not systematically dismantle and destroy the progress that Liberals made on many files – from the economy, to child care deals with the provinces, to the agreements with municipalities, to aboriginals and the environment with the Kelowna and Kyoto Accords.”
Is April 3rd going to come fast enough!!??!!
The New Odd Couple: Gilles & Steven
In an interview with Globe and Mail, Bloc House Leader Michel Gauthier made in very clear that the Bloc Québécois will keep the new government in place for a while.
“We don’t want useless battles. We want to help the government function for a while. I have no shame in saying I will be urging my colleagues . . . to conduct ourselves in a way that the government stays in place for a good while to do what needs to be done,” he said in French.
“[The Conservatives] have already shown more openness than the Liberals. The Liberals were centralist in everything they did, trying to infringe on the responsibilities of Quebec. It couldn’t be worse that that. I think the Conservatives will be more respectful of Quebec’s responsibilities.”
Mr. Gauthier said the Bloc will not spearhead specific policies, but will push to ensure government policies are good for Quebec.
In other words, the Bloc, who had their butts handed to them in the last election, does not want to bring down this government and lose anymore seats. So as long as Harper scratches their back and they can keep some creditability in Quebec, then the Bloc will give Harper the seats that he wants. This is both good and bad.
The good side is that there may be a stable Canadian government in place for a while. The bad thing is that the Bloc will be the key to the Conservatives success. That the Bloc is a seperatist party and ultimately wants to break apart Canada, I don’t see how a Conservative government can really function for the “good” of Canada.
Harper doesn’t really have much of a choice in the matter. The Liberals are going to fight him on every front and the NDP does not have the seats, so guess who is left. Harper may be able to get his agenda pass, but what will Canada have to give up nationally to the Bloc is the unknown.
Did I Mention The Supreme Court?
In all of this, it seemed that we almost forgot to mention something that will be important to Canada for atleast the next 10 years.
Marshall Rothstein, a veteran of 14 years on the bench, is about to become the newest judge of the Supreme Court of Canada, after the formality of a parliamentary hearing is out of the way on Monday. This hearing will be a first of Canada.
The 65-year-old Winnipeg native was chosen late Thursday by Prime Minister Stephen Harper as his first nominee for the high court. Rothstein was on a short list of candidates that the former Martin government had put together.
Rothstein’s next step comes Monday, when he will face a three-hour, televised hearing before an all-party committee of MPs. Even though it will be the first time that a nominee for the Canadian Supreme Court will go through the process, no one expects an American-style grilling to happen.
Harper, who made the hearing a condition of taking the job, billed the session as an “unprecedented step toward the more open and accountable approach to nominations that Canadians deserve.”
There appeared to be little doubt that Rothstein, who currently sits on the Federal Court of Appeal, will enjoy the backing of opposition as well as government MPs for his new post.
Interim Liberal leader Bill Graham called him a “superior jurist”, while former justice minister Irwin Cotler, who put Rothstein on the list, saw him as a man who will make “an enduring contribution to the Supreme Court of Canada.”
NDP justice critic Joe Comartin said his background in commercial, corporate and tax law made him a perfect fit to replace retired Justice John Major, who left the nine-member Supreme Court in December after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 75.
That Harper picked Rothstein from the Liberal list, he will avoid criticism that he wants to pack the Court with Conservatives. Finally a good move Stephen!!
That is all for this week in Canadian Politics. See everyone next week.