Everything seems to say we were right in our morning line. The odds in early September on which party will win were 3 to one in favour of the Trudeau Liberals and we have never had reason to doubt that prediction. The unbroken streak of predicted wins for Babel-on-the-Bay appears to be continuing. Rather than feeling tired from this long election period, we feel invigorated. There will be lots of work for a new government.
Mind you, there is little expectation of a majority. A turnaround on that scale in both Quebec and British Columbia seems unlikely. And it would take a major shift in either or both those provinces to give the Liberals more than 170 seats. With a majority government the objectives would be the same but more leisurely. The following priority items are likely to be crammed into two years rather than four:
First there is the question about how we vote. With a minority, the New Democrats will make a change in voting one of their demands. They want to change the first-past-the-post to some form of preferential or proportional voting. Since the Trudeau Liberals have also promised to study this, there will be some action. While it might not be a constitutional question, both Ontario and British Columbia have asked their voters if they want to make a change and both proposals have been rejected. It would be foolish to make a change federally without asking the voters’ opinion.
Bill C-36 was the Conservative answer to the Supreme Court on the sex trade and few expect the judges to agree with it. It is an act that says the buyer is the bad person and it solves nothing. It leaves the sex worker in jeopardy. This needs to be fixed fast.
Similarly there is a deadline on the Supreme Court’s request for clarification on physician-assisted suicide. This will require extensive committee hearings to get the wording right. While the court might allow some more time for a new government, it will hardly be longer than two years.
Just as urgent politically is the Senate problem. The New Democrats want it simply abolished and that cannot happen without a constitutional change. The Liberal solution is an elitist committee to recommend elitist senators and that will please nobody but a few elite senators. We have an idea that might just fix this and we will spend some time talking about it over the next couple months.
The Liberals also have to fix that awful Bill-C51 terrorism act that they voted for. If they do not give it priority there will be as many Liberals shouting at them as New Democrats. It will be a busy time in Ottawa.
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Copyright 2015 © Peter Lowry
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