Two things are absolutely clear about Prime Minister Stephen Harper: he has no hidden agenda and never had one; he is quite desperate for majority rule.

Descriptions of the Conservative government’s Speech from the Throne on Tuesday night as conciliatory are laughable. The throne speech (and subsequent statements made by Harper) had less to do with getting tough on crime (at a moment when crime in Canada, even gun-related crime, is hardly a pressing concern); little to do with undercutting John Manley’s panel on Afghanistan (by indicating the government’s preference to extend the mission beyond 2009); was not really about abandoning Canada’s Kyoto commitments (as the prime minister had already indicated his preference for US President Bush’s self-serving parallel synod on climate change); or any of the other quisling statements made to attract votes. Rather, Mr. Harper’s speech, made after a four month Parliamentary recess — an extended absence designed to prove that Ottawa and Parliament do not matter — was about the reduction of federal spending powers to matters of defence and foreign affairs (that is, weaponry and soldiers and the odd diplomatic mission, at a ratio, probably, of 10:1), granting provinces a veto on all other matters, telling them to create more “tax room” (the subtext of another chop to the GST), and, generally, reversing the flow of Confederation such that Ottawa can never again play a significant role over the commons.

While Stéphane Dion and the Liberal Party of Canada are no doubt mired in their own stew, dysfunctional, and losing traction in Quebec, the plucky, surprising, and only gutsy response to Harper’s throne speech is to throw down the gauntlet, force an election, and campaign strongly on the necessity of an activist federal government in Ottawa determined to staunch provincial power, address climate change, bring in a national securities act with teeth, enter the battle over oil and gas royalties in Alberta because the environment is at stake, address the many areas of consolidation (wealth, the media, etc.), assume a leadership role in the search for alternative energy sources, and, of course, live up to the promise of the Clarity Act (Dion’s own), a piece of legislation which, not long ago, was broadly accepted and which suggested that the country is worth fighting for.

Prime Minister Harper’s Speech from the Throne exposes the man and his vision of Canada. It is both a gift and a challenge to the Liberal Party of Canada: and gifts should be accepted graciously, challenges met head on. There are many Canadians who want nothing more than to go to the polls; we have been watching the shenanigans and the hollowing out of Ottawa long enough. This time, Harper has stepped in it. Not responding suggests impotence, suggests bending to the will and caprice of a man and a government willing to sell Canada down the river. Mr. Dion, to paraphrase Mr. Harper himself, use this opportunity or lose it.

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Posted on Thursday, October 18th, 2007 at 10:39 am. Follow comments through the RSS 2.0 feed. Comment or trackback.