Editorials
August 21, 2008 01:06 AM
The late American political columnist Stewart Alsop wrote in his 1970s memoir: “A dying man needs to die, as a sleepy man needs to sleep, and there comes a time when it is wrong, as well as useless, to resist.”
The same may be said of a dying Parliament. So it comes as good news there are growing indications the increasingly dysfunctional federal Parliament will be dissolved by an early fall election call.
Minority governments have a natural shelf life and this one has definitely reached its best-before date.
All that is going on now is endless game playing, name calling and accusations with none of the parties appearing to give much thought to the public interest or issues genuinely important to Canadians.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper seems to have given up any pretense of national leadership and is content having his government goad the Liberals and antagonize as many interest groups as possible.
From unexplained or seemingly unnecessary arts funding cuts to attacks on the medical profession as unethical because many doctors support safe injection sites for drug addicts, the Conservatives seem content to try to shore up their base of die-hard Reform Party-type right-wingers without a thought for the longer term harm their antics may cause.
Opposition Leader Stephane Dion, meanwhile, criticizes the Conservative government on nearly all its policy fronts, but scurries away from every opportunity to challenge them in a Parliamentary vote.
He appears to think, too, obsessing about his “green scheme” is a substitute for addressing all other issues that face our country. His ability to provide solid, unwavering leadership continues to dog the Liberals, whose presence this year in Ottawa is shamefully thin.
The endlessly glib Jack Layton and his NDP have let themselves become irrelevant and the less said about the separatist Bloc, as usual, the better. Meanwhile, our economy risks heading into the dumpster.
The manufacturing sector, under which 80 per cent of York businesses fall, continues to feel the sting of a U.S. economic slowdown, our international relations and world role are getting frayed from lack of careful thought and aboriginals are becoming increasingly frustrated by lack of progress.
While a recent survey shows a slim majority of Canadians think the Conservatives are doing a good job with the economy, most other areas get failing grades.
In short, the country is increasingly adrift while everyone in this Parliament is content to play partisan games instead of focusing on anything that really matters to the people paying the bills.
An election — the sooner, the better — would clear the air.