I have been in Ottawa, mostly, since the Olympics ended. Not physically there -that's just where my mind and web browsers have been pointed. Through the throne speech, end of the prorogue and the budget, there's a lot to comment on.
The Tories sold Canadians the prorogue as a means for government to take a step back to recalibrate its economic action plan, and then we got a "stay the course" budget. No real new spending and claims that services will be spared. If the promise to bring the deficit down by 2015 holds up, we will have only as much national debt as we did when the government started paying it down in 1998.
The "no surprises" budget just lends credence to the claims that shutting the doors to Par-liament was a way to let the Afghan detainee transfer/torture scandal cool off. Thankfully, the inquiry into that has restarted, because I have a thing for this accountability I was promised during the last election.
I'm not offering praise, though. The inquiry lost two months of time while millions are still being poured into Afghanistan, and Canadian parents and spouses of soldiers overseas still have a tough time getting to sleep.
Maybe it has been there and I am missing it, but if we are in Afghanistan to support a fledgling new democracy that is meant to serve as a model for the region, why are we holding ourselves and our government to such account without any criticism of the Afghan government for actually carrying out the illegal torture?
As for the notion of testing Canadians' appetite for a revised national anthem mentioned in the throne speech, well, that was just misdirection on par with a good magic trick.
What happens now? I've seen two polls in the last week, one showing the Liberals with a hair-thin lead and one with the Liberals and Conservatives at a virtual tie. Of course, no politician wants an election when he has nothing to gain, and elections of late have become more about what a party can gain than what the people can gain. Minority government brinksmanship forces the parties to dwell on politics when they should be dwelling on policy.
This brings me to bipartisanship. It's never really been a healthy animal, but it's one we truly need. Don't believe me? Have a look to our neighbours in the south. President Obama and the Democrats hold the White House and the majority of congress and are trying to get to work on reforming the U.S. health care system. What they are facing is a faux revolution of conservatives and libertarians frothing at the mouth and protesting. With their spelling-error-riddled and sometimes blatantly racist placards, they are accusing Democrats of being Nazis, communists and terrorist sympathizers, and the Republicans are all too pleased to welcome this "tea party" movement into the tent. "Obstructionist" isn't a strong enough word to describe what has happened there, and the whole process has ground to a halt.
To sum up, a message to all four major political parties: thanks for the stimulus. Work on that deficit. Let's see some accountability. Work together. And please, no more prorogues.
It's like clogging the toilet and coming back two months later to unclog it - things did not get better while you were gone.
