A Lack of Confidence

Parliamentarians have barely had time to find their seats in the House and the Opposition is threatening a no-confidence vote that could topple the government. In a minority government situation, we can expect the government to fall if all the opposition parties decide to work together to defeat the government but to do so after only a month or two following an election should require a serious misstep on the part of the government. Those taxpayers who did not vote in the last election will likely be more outraged than those who did vote, but in these economic doldrums we do not need the expense of another election.

The issue that is, according to the opposition, driving the no-confidence vote is that the Conservatives did not address the world-wide problem of the economy in their budget statement. What, exactly, the Liberals, NDP or Bloc would have us do has not been clear, but they say the Conservative are not doing whatever it is they think the Canadian government ought to be doing to help solve the world-wide recession. Perhaps they would have us bail out failing American auto companies before the U.S. has made its decision on an auto-sector gift. The Minister of Finance has said they need more time to consider a package and I believe he is correct.

Bailing out banks, manufacturers, brokerage houses and insurance companies may be the New American Way, but is it the right thing to do? If we bailout the big failures there will be no money to bailout or help the other sectors of the economic engines that drive the capitalist system. How about money for the forest industry? The mining sector may soon need help. What happens if the farmers who feed us need a pocket full of money? Who decides what troubled businesses get the taxpayers’ money?

The Opposition thinks it has the answers, but they are not telling us their solution. Not all banks needed a bailout. Not all auto manufacturers have their hands in our pockets. Not every insurance company needed propping up, nor every stockbroker’s firm has an empty till. Maybe it is time to let these companies fold their tents. It would be cheaper to look after the displaced employees than to continue to pour new wine into the old wineskins of GM, Ford and Chrysler. If that is what the Liberals and NDP think they should do, then we might be better off leaving the Conservatives in power. What the Bloc hopes to get out of this will be another special interest for Quebec, but I suspect the other two opposition parties will do anything for Duceppe (not Canadians) to get their hands on the rudder of the good ship Canada.

Of course, we all know this whole thing is really about the party funding program that Harper wants to cut. His reasons for doing this are blatantly obvious, especially to the cash-strapped Liberals, but maybe, just maybe, the funding idea was wrong to begin with. This taxpayer-funded election plan was great for any party who garnered a large percentage of the popular vote in the previous election because it gave them a strong financial advantage for the next election. It must have surprised the Liberals when the funding back-fired on them, so you might think they would agree with Harper in scrapping the whole funding scheme now that it benefits the Conservatives more than any party.

Those who claim it is a righteous mandate to topple the minority government because more voters supported other parties than the Conservatives in the past election ought to remember that even fewer voters supported the Liberals or the NDP. Then there is the Bloc – the party whose mandate is to break up Canada. They will be strange bedfellows in any coalition of the ‘Left’.

As much as one may dislike the Harperites and their pet projects, this is not the time for no-confidence. The issue raised by the opposition is not legitimate. The government needs time to consider all the implications of bailouts and it must be done in concordance with our biggest trading partner – whose citizens happen to own these troubled companies. The Opposition needs to pick the issue and time for a no-confidence vote and this is not it.