Election Timing -- Don't Scrooge With The (Canadian) Voters ... Rex Murphy

Globe and Mail ^ | November 12, 2005 | Rex Murphy

[NorthOf45]

Election timing -- don't Scrooge with the voters

By Rex Murphy
Globe and Mail
November 12, 2005

Who knew that Christmas in Canada was still important?

Evidently it is so important that the mere idea of an election during Christmas, whatever its justification, is anathema. Like bingo at a funeral. The horror.

Some of us may have thought that with Christmas having been neutered into the "holiday season" or the "winter festival" or whatever pastel formulation these prickly politically correct times oblige, it had been drained of all real or symbolic significance.

If it is not a religious holiday, if it is just -- so to speak -- a "holiday" holiday, what possible difference can there be, what offence can be caused, if Christmas falls at any point during a national election?

Would any be upset if a campaign ran through Halloween? Given the current state of our politics, some might be confused, but it is unlikely they would be upset. Spring break? Canadian Tire Day? Of course not. Yet Christmas, despite the best efforts of the most progressive, inclusive minds to strip it of all of its Christian and traditional "biases," is still a wire that carries a lot of current.

Hence the delirious dance going on in Parliament. The opposition parties are in a fever to trigger an earlier election than the one already pledged by Paul Martin, but are exercising every fatuous ingenuity not to wear the blame for a Christmas check with the voters. Santa coming down the chimney and Jack Layton at the front door at the same time is conceived as just too awesome for the Canadian elector.

Aside from the Santa connection, Mr. Layton is even more eager to put some daylight between himself and the "corrupt government" of the Liberals.

The NDP bridged the Liberals during the Gomery hearings, and operated the political equivalent of the Jaws of Life during any number of no-confidence motions last spring. Then Mr. Layton woke, after Mr. Justice John Gomery reported, to the wisdom of seeing the Liberals as too corrupt for him to maintain their parliamentary oxygen.

Stephen Harper was quicker to that insight, having sustained it from the last election. And Gilles Duceppe of the Bloc Québécois has been ready to vote against the Liberals almost at any time, whether they were corrupt or not. But after the Gomery report, and Mr. Layton's emergence into the light, at last all three opposition parties are agreed: The Liberals are corrupt. They have no moral authority to govern. The Gomery inquiry had spent almost 1,100 pages to support that thesis. So it was time for them to go.

The Liberals early in the fall session had somewhat hammer locked the opposition by removing their so-called "opposition days" from the parliamentary calendar. But this month, as of Tuesday next in fact, they have their first. And there will be more. Then, on Dec. 8, the government brings in the supplementary estimates, and a vote on those would be an iron-clad vote of confidence.

So the opposition parties have a string of opportunities to act on their combined appreciation that the Liberals have no moral authority to govern. They have parliamentary opportunities to move no-confidence themselves, or vote down those crucial estimates.

And what do they do? They hedge. They bluster. Mostly, they talk about the horror of a Christmas election. No one wants to be "blamed" -- that is the word of choice -- for a "Christmas" election. Maybe they fear the hymns. After Gomery, any appeal to the angels is apt to be awkward.

But as I said, who knew? I don't buy it. Mr. Layton is not doing his jig over a real no-confidence motion, and Mr. Harper and Mr. Duceppe are not holding fire over launching one of their own, because the glow of the Bethlehem stable is holding them in awe.

All three opposition leaders feel that their picking an earlier date is better, for them, than the Prime Minister's announced one. They feel that there is the hope of a fractional advantage for each of them in the earlier vote. But they also know that most Canadians know this as well -- and that they are just as political in wanting to force the election a little earlier, as Mr. Martin is political in wanting to stick to his timetable.

So they cry principle even as they dream tactics. If their call for the government to resign were indeed a principle, then whether folks are running off to Canadian Tire to stock up on lights and toys for the kids would have no part in their judgments.

But because it really is all tactics, they are afraid to annoy Canadians. That is the difference between tactics and principle. Principle insists that they go ahead anyway. Tactics includes measuring annoyance.

That explains most of the gamesmanship this week. It's not about Christmas after all. It is about not wanting to show up on doorsteps wearing the mantle of Scrooge.

Ho, Ho, and Ho.

[NorthOf45]

Good ol' Rex ...

[NorthOf45]

Rex Murphy Ping

[timsbella]

"Like bingo at a funeral. The horror."

Under the B for budget screwing the middle class
Under the I for income taxes starting at 40%
Under the N for not touching the GST
Under the G for more government
And under the O, well, for more "owe"

Thanks for the ping. My lump o' coal is in the mail to 24 Sussex.

[Clive]

-

[fanfan]

LOL!

Thanks for the ping NorthOf45!



Canada ping!
Please FReepmail me to get on or off this Canada ping list.

[fanfan]

Santa coming down the chimney and Jack Layton at the front door at the same time is conceived as just too awesome for the Canadian elector.

LOL!

[GreenLanternCorps]

For goodness sake Stephen, stand tall, force a vote and throw the corrupt Grits out!!! Make it a 308 riding* fight and go for it!!!


* Yes, I know the Tories won't come close, but they need to become true national alternative, that means a candidate in every riding, even in the heart of Toronto and the most nationalist parts of Quebec.