Is Mr Harper a Machiavellian Chessmaster whose 'grand plan for our betterment" we are too simple to appreciate? or is he a Bonehead Bully?
Richmond Hill, Ontario - Tuesday, December 9, 2008 - by: Robert Ede
 

Stephen Harper has admitted failure as Prime Minister he gave up in Septemb er and asked for an election in the face of his own fixed date legislation. Now he tries to bamboozle the Governor General with delaying tactics, and mis-interpretations of the constitution and history simply to avoid a vote of Non-confidence!

Prior bad advice, accepted by the Governor General, the 2008 election proved useless. If ever an opposition coalition was to be considered it was then ... to fulfill the balance of the fixed term ... after all Harper admitted he couldn't govern, but everything/everyone else thought things we okay.

Now (after saying it so often, that he himself believes he 'won' the election) he acts like a majority Prime Minister and gets rightly stoned by the (majority of seats) opposition for his arrogance.

He was chastised by the voters on October 14, we had an opportunity to give him a majority then, and chose not to do so. His Fiscal Update tactics and subsequent about-face and attack behaviours are insults to that "non-mandate", exceedingly appropriate decision of the voters and an insult to the public's duly elected House representatives.

To again give bad advice (to prorogue rather than face the music on Monday the 8th) is blatant self-serving and self-defending (nevermind setting a bad precedent for future house-scuffles).

The outcome is only delayed ... unless he can let time, reality and infighting convince the opponents to scuttle their own warships, or unless Harper can 'Benedict Stronach/Brison' a few Liberals with cabinet posts (as Martin Jr. did to him) to shore up his numbers ... he's cooked in early February 2009.

As an economist, I am sure Harper can count to 308, but as a military strategist he's been reading the wrong books . (aside, whose school of economics is Harper's primary influence?- we should ask him if 'twas always thus? as well)

Very few Canadians want an election (the ace up Harper's sleeve) but absolutely no one wants the 3-stooges.

If the coalition are given government by the Governor General (and when they blow it as they inevitably will) then,

  1. the Governor General as a person looks stupid and unfit for granting those 3 stooges the opportunity
  2. the Governor General's office looks irrelevant (in addition to being thought an anachronism to those who know no history and have never read the British North America Act
  3. Harper wins a majority-out-of-desperation in a landslide ..... woe betide us. Here comes Firewall Steve and the 'Provincialist First' Majorette demolition team.

The prorogue is the second, recent bad advice accepted by our lovely and virtually isolated Governor General (much like a just-arrived, Brit-appointed Governor General might have been in the 1870-1944 period).

The framers here and over home anticipated such an occurrence and provided the Governor General (possessor of the Queen-in-Council's full authority within Canada) with a Privy Council - a permanent, ultra cabinet to advise the newbie on local affairs and to be a permanent supervisory body established to watch that the short-term, self-serving plebs in the house of commoners didn't steal all the money for their friends or promise it to the voters to sustain themselves in office.

Our current Governor General (and all Governor Generals since 1940) has not had the benefit of the advice and Institutional wisdom of this independent Council of GrandMothers (Iroquois Confederacy parallel term) because control of the Privy Council was usurped by William Lyon McKenzie King under cover, or wartime expediency - and never returned.

The Prime Minister should resign for giving such bad advice

  1. in the first place because its so blatantly self-serving and defiant to the reality of the next House vote
  2. without giving the Governor General the institutional resources to respond on behalf of the greater public good. How about an all the talents war-style, emergency-style cabinet 50% Conservative, 25% Liberal, 15% New Democratic Party and 10% Bloc Quebecois?

Harper had Lynch (holding the combo-office of Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary of the Cabinet) The combined resources of the Government of the day plus the entire Public Service, while the Governor General had the secretary and an outsider, (but accustomed to lots of contract work with government agencies) fee-based, expert-lawyer.

In response to the indignities of Mr. Harper towards the person and Office, mercy will be offered (but only because any alternative leader is so much more lacking)

Madame Jean must stand on the Constitution, on the Letters Patent of 1947:

  1. Harper must be reminded that he is the Queen's servant and as such in Canada he is the Governor General's servant, he must honour his oath to the Queen (who represents the best interests of the Crown which represents the best interests of the Canadian people.
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  2. Harper must be told to rescind the 1940 Order in Council that usurped the Privy Council from the Executive (ss.9-16) and placed it in Mackenzie Kings Legislative hands (upside down, inmates running the asylum).Thereby returning the Council of Grandmothers to its Constitutional origins, re-instating the Public Service as servants of the Public thru the Governor General and no longer servants of the (often arbitrary and selfish) government of the day.
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  3. Harper must be told that he (or somebody else of the Governor General's choosing) must finish this four year fixed dates term in a All-the-Talents cabinet of proportionate to the party-based seats in the House (and independents if they can amass minimum 1% seat total) - we don't need elections until this world-wide economic and monetary mess is over, or at least on the mend. Our Constitution also allows for special term extensions in times of war - to me this mess is as bad as any war.
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  4. The new cabinet will proceed to debate a new format for selecting the Governor General - my suggestion is by election at large every-other general election, using a single-transferable ballot, with the term commencing 365 days after the writs are returned. Once elected the Governor General will have a mandate to supervise the operations from a pan-Canadian perspective and long-term view. Once elected the bills and policies will still originate from the Legislative Order, but they'll have to pass Executive scrutiny or be 'reserved' for Royal Assent after approval by general referendum

    I submit, that these types of ideas are where the discussion should be centring.
 
 
   

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