IN THE 50 years since John Diefenbaker defeated the Liberals June 10, 1957, there have been just two truly majority governments elected in Canada with more than 50 percent of the popular vote – Diefenbaker in 1958 and Brian Mulroney in 1984.
The other 15 governments during those years, even those with a majority of House of Commons seats, had the support of a minority of Canadian voters.
Stephen Harper last year won a weak minority with 36 percent of the vote and now is having a difficult time managing the parliamentary agenda. The combined opposition considers his government agenda illegitimate because the majority of Canadians opposed it.
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All of which is an introduction to this: history may remember this 39th Parliament not for decisions made on aboriginal affairs, global warming, the environment or agricultural policy but as the Parliament that upended the tradition that government proposes and Parliament disposes.
For what some parliamentary historians consider the first time in history, Parliament is being used to impose on a minority government the collective agendas of the defeated opposition parties. On key issues, the opposition majority now is both proposing and disposing.
“What we are doing in this particular case has never happened before,” former government adviser and political scientist James Hurley told a Senate committee studying an opposition bill.
“Legally it can go through but I ask the question, are we muddying the principle of responsible government?”
On issue after issue, Liberal, Bloc Québeçois and New Democratic Party MPs are combining to insist the Conservative government enact their policy, as if Canadians collectively decided in January 2006 to elect an opposition coalition government.
It is a precedent-setting change that could come back to haunt future minority governments as they face opposition MPs prepared to impose legislation without the responsibility to implement it or to live with the consequences.
In this rancorous Parliament, opposition MPs are imposing legislation, demanding the government enact it. This is far different from the tradition that opposition MPs can defeat government proposals if they are prepared to take their chances with the electorate.
Opposition MPs have combined to pass private member’s bills that would force the Conservatives to implement the $5 billion Kelowna Accord on aboriginal affairs and the open-ended Kyoto Accord on climate change. They have rewritten the Conservative Clean Air Act to make it Liberal-Bloc-NDP environment policy.
When approved by the House of Commons, these bills almost certainly will be approved by the Liberal-dominated Senate to become law and the Conservative government could be held liable in court if it fails to implement them against its will.
Parliament is in procedural chaos because Conservatives are trying to block or delay unwanted measures or negative votes before the Commons or committees.
Here’s a thought.
Rather than trying to govern from the opposition benches, perhaps the three parties that lost the last election should defeat this minority government and find out which party Canadians decide should lead. And the opposition should accept the result.
