The parliamentary debate over the rail back-to-work legislation was about much more than getting the trains running again. All parties said they were anxious to see trains running again and grain and other commodities moving. Beneath the surface, much more was at play.
The debate was about whether the Liberals have abandoned any pretense at neutrality in the natural tension between capital and labor. The debate was about the political repositioning caused by the demise of the NDP as an effective national left-of-centre voice.
And the debate was very much about the looming Quebec referendum.
Read Also
Rural emergency room closures continue to be vexing problem
Staffing issues are at the root of disruptions and closures in hospital emergency departments, both in rural and urban Canadian locations.
For the Liberals, the debate and the legislation provided an important signal that they have re-assumed their 1950s role as the voice primarily of the business community.
By imposing rules that will make it easier for the railways to shed thousands of workers and by tilting the arbitration process against the unions, the Liberals were following up their own recent action to renege on job security guarantees written into contracts with government employees.
It was another sign of the demise of the influence of the Liberal left wing that flourished in the 1970s and 1980s. Meanwhile, the battle over who will speak for the traditional labor and left constituency once represented by the New Democratic Party also was being played out.
Once the NDP decided to abandon attempts to delay back-to-work legislation last week, it also abandoned the debate. None of its nine MPs took part in the weekend session, partly because time limits on the debate meant they would have little chance to take part.
But their absence led BQ members to proclaim themselves the inheritors of the NDP mantle. “The NDP has abandoned workers,” declared Bloc transportation critic Michel Guimond.
Overstated as it was, the comment did highlight a political vacuum created by the 1993 election. The progressive end of the spectrum is almost non-existent among English Canada’s parliamentary representation.
While the Bloc talks the NDP talk on labor issues, few workers outside Quebec will imagine a party dedicated to breaking up the country really represents their interests.
But of all the politics surrounding the back-to-work legislation, the most frustrating for non-Quebeckers was the shadow that the Quebec separatist campaign cast over the debate.
Labor minister Lucienne Robillard piloted the bill through the House of Commons but her real role in the ChrŽtien government is to lead the federalist fight against Quebec separatists.
Therefore, the BQ was intent on tarnishingher reputation in her first parliamentary battle.
How else can the extreme BQ rhetoric be explained? She was “to blame for the worst week” in Parliament, she was “an economic terrorist”, she was anti-democratic.
It was a small, depressing sample of how the Quebec referendum debate will influence almost all Canadian political discourse until the vote is held.
