Maybe it’s time to vote with your feet

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/12/2008 (6476 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This parliamentary meltdown might be the best Christmas present for aboriginal people in a long time, at least for its entertainment value. Thank you Santa. Or should we say, thank you Stephen? But will the end result bring any changes?

There’s an old saying that in the past we voted with our feet. If we didn’t like what the chief was saying we’d simply walk away, showing we weren’t supportive of his plans.

This is what seems to be happening in the House of Commons.

The past few weeks have been a political mess with the elected members acting like kids engaged in a schoolyard tussle.

The Conservatives were elected Oct. 14 for another term but with another minority, their second in as many elections. This means Stephen Harper didn’t get enough support for a strong leadership role.

The simple math is Harper got 143 seats out of a possible 308. He needed 155 for the majority that would have allowed him the power to pass laws and make changes as he saw fit. But the opposition got more seats: the Liberals (76); Bloc Québécois (50); the New Democrats (37); and the two independents have 165.

The trouble is, Harper doesn’t seem to understand these simple numbers.

In Canadian parliamentary history, the party with the minority has usually been able to count on at least one of the opposing parties to hook up with it and give it a majority. But when Parliament opened Nov. 18 there was this worldwide economic crisis happening. The Conservatives said they were going to fix it so Canadians wouldn’t be hit too hard. They announced their economic plan on Nov. 12.

But it wasn’t a good plan.

It was aimed more at disabling the opposition than providing ordinary Canadians with shelter from the howling global economic tornado. It was such a bad plan that none of the opposition parties would join the Conservatives and give them the numbers they needed to pass legislation and make changes as they saw fit.

In light of Harper’s blunder, the Liberals and the NDP, supported by the Bloc, used the majority Canadian voters gave them in October to form their coalition.

The Governor General accepted Harper’s request to prorogue on Thursday. This means a break in Parliament until Jan. 26. The heat is off… for now.

Here are the possible outcomes in the new year: Harper introduces a budget the opposition actually likes and the Conservative minority lives on; the coalition hates the budget and defeats the Conservatives in a non-confidence vote; the coalition chats up the GG and convinces her to let them take over government; she calls an election.

Certainly interesting circumstances but coalition or not, we’re still stuck with a shaky situation.

Will a coalition or minority government resolve the issues of aboriginal people? Will we get better housing, roads, hospitals, suicide-prevention, child-care or addiction-treatment programs? What about education and training in line with our burgeoning youth population?

Will land claims be settled any quicker? Will natural-resource sharing between corporate Canada and the original people of this continent break out; something beyond janitorial jobs? Will toxic energy production projects be killed in favour of those less harmful to the Earth?

Will either government work in partnership with the aboriginal nations to ensure our inherent sovereignty and self-determination aren’t diminished?

Well, I doubt it, but either the coalition or minority can’t do any worse than a majority of any stripe. We could always go back to the way things were and vote with our feet.

colleen.simard@gmail.com