Government Betrayal

The American mantra is "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness", while the Canadian one is "peace, order, and good government." Canadian society is one of the most peaceable and orderly in the world. However, it's clear that Canadians have every reason to feel betrayed by government, both the actual people and parties, as well as the system that produces it.

Let's start at the top. Jean Chretien is for all intents and purposes an elected dictator. He's clearly demonstrated throughout 2002 that he doesn't care what Canadians think, all he wants to do is run the country, and provide favours to his buddies to stay in power.

He got elected partly because he promised to run a clean government, but mainly because his name was not Brian Mulroney, one of the most reviled politicians in the history of Canada. It's a measure of Chretien's unpopularity that Mulroney is musing about entering public life again, and some Canadians are actually thinking about it. That's partly a result of the Chretien government suffering through more scandals last year than in the rest of their entire time in office.

Mulroney had his share of ministerial scandals, but somehow managed to keep control of his caucus. Chretien's grip has certainly been loosened, and will probably loosen even more as he sleepwalks through his long farewell. You see, he finally figured out that he was going to lose a leadership review required by the Liberal Party constitution, and announced his resignation date to be February 2004. That isn't a typo, it's really more than a year from now.

The reason Chretien can stick around so long is because he has total control over the government goody bag. He chooses the people who become Supreme Court judges, ministers in his government, Senators, run Royal Commissions, get cushy civil service appointments, and when you get right down to the nuts and bolts of it, signs the nomination papers for the ordinary Member of Parliament so they can run in the next election. It is understandably difficult for people to oppose the person who has so much control over their political life.

Yet, it's happening. Part of the explanation is the bitter leadership race happening. Chretien wants to keep Paul Martin from being his successor out of personal animosity. Some of the party members see Martin as being the next Prime Minister and are beginning to shelter under his cloak, probably in the hopes of being rewarded later.

Another part of the explanation is that they are finally seeing the shortcomings of Chretien as Prime Minister. This is a man who speaks neither official language. His day to day comments are riddled with gaffes that illustrate a complete lack of understanding of what's going on around him. During the APEC controversy, when police offices pepper sprayed legitimate protesters on orders from the Prime Minister's Office, he said "As for me, I put pepper on my plate."

When he was travelling in the Middle East he managed the historical feat of uniting the Jews and Arabs against him and Canada. He joked, or tried to, that he didn't know what where he was. During his 2002 year end interviews he couldn't remember the name of one of the most prominent Canadian news broadcasters, and asked another, "who are you?"

Our "first past the post" electoral system has also contributed to Chretien's longevity in office. After the Mulroney government went from a majority to holding just two seats in the House of Commons, the political right fractured. The Conservatives are barely holding onto party status, teeth and toenails. The Alliance, formerly Reform, hasn't been able to capitalize on the misfortunes of either the Liberals or the Conservatives. Too many Canadians still see them as Alberta rednecks, and Stockwell Day's goofy leadership nearly destroyed the party. The two parties can't seem to get together. On the political left the New Democrats have reduced themselves to irrelevancy by advocating policies that simply won't work. They are busy holding a leadership election, and are proud of themselves for signing up about 20,000 people. That's nice, until you remember there are about 20 million voters.

About two thirds of the Liberal members are from Ontario, and many of them got in with a minority of voters voting for them. The Liberals remain at about 40 percent in the polls, which is easily enough to ensure another majority government. This is what leaves Chretien in power. He can call another election any time, and short of the Governor General asking the Alliance to form a government or the voters in Chretien's riding turning him out, we'd be stuck with him.

He's mused publicly about winning 4 majority governments to equal Laurier's records. The thought gives me the shudders. The Liberals already think they have a right to govern, and reward their friends with bogus contracts. In one instance they paid for a report that was never produced. They don't see anything wrong with wasting taxpayer money.

Yet until the electoral system in Canada changes, we are going to be stuck with governments being elected by a minority of voters, and more and more voters disliking the result. It used to be a point of pride that our voter turnout was so high, but that's been changing. The Liberals would tell you that satisfied people don't vote because they like it the way it is. I think voters aren't voting because they don't see any point. They think the election results are decided by the time the polls close in Ontario.

Canadians have taken a lot of crap from their governments in recent decades. The sheer overwhelming stupidity of the federal government, and the incessant wrangling between the various levels of government is pissing people off. As a Monty Python movie puts it, "it's people like you what cause social unrest." The social unrest in Canada is well beyond starting. More and more people are saying that things can't continue on this way, on a variety of fronts. Health care is the major issue, with education close behind, but there's also funding for cities, upgrades to infrastructure, and building an effective military being just a few of the demands where voters and taxpayers are demanding more value for the money spent. In the next few years we'll find out what forms that protest will take.