It has been assumed for the last while that there are voters parking their votes with the New Democratic Party. That just means if anyone asks, they say they will vote for the NDP. And if they actually did that, this country would never be the same again.
Sure, most of us want to get rid of Prime Minister Stephen Harper but do we also want to say au revoir to Quebec at the same time? New Democrat Leader Thomas Mulcair has been playing footsie with the separatists and promising them an easy separation from the rest of Canada. As a Quebecker, Mulcair does not think the rest of Canada cares. Well, Canadians in every province care and the NDP are going to pay for their foolishness.
And do not forget that Thomas Mulcair has duel citizenship: He is a citizen of France as well as Canada. We have no idea where his loyalties lie. He tells people that you are insular and parochial if you do not approve of people holding duel citizenship. That is fine for people who want to keep a foot in each country for family or business reasons. It is not fine for people who want to be Prime Minister of Canada. There can be no equivocation on loyalties for a person in that position.
But Mulcair is already starting to lose ground in the current campaign. He is making promises for the New Democrats that he cannot keep. When he tells people that when in government, he will abolish the Senate, he is telling them a lie because he knows he cannot deliver. And it is the Province of Quebec that is the biggest obstacle to agreeing. How he thinks he could buy Quebec’s agreement makes for some interesting speculation but it is unlikely to be something that will appeal to the rest of the country.
It is like Prime Minister Harper promising that he will not appoint any more senators. He has made that promise before and he knows he cannot keep it—if by some miracle he remains Prime Minister. His solution would create a constitutional crisis at some point and it would be a Gordian knot.
Actually there is little sense to any party’s solutions to Canada’s constitutional problems. The Conservatives were right to laugh at Mulcair suggesting that he will switch how Canadians vote to a form of proportional representation. While that is not a constitutional consideration, it would be foolish for any party to try to change how we vote without at least a referendum. Any party that thought through the country’s constitutional problems though would find it wise to call for an elected constitutional conference.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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