Cynthia’s Thoughts: No Coalition…Parliament Suspended Instead

Barely two months since the Federal election in Canada, seemed to be in trouble. The Liberal Party and the NDP (New Democratic Party) had, in association with the Bloc Quebecois discussed the possibility of forming a coalition government and therefore taking the current Conservative Party out of power. But the possibility of that happening on December 8, when the vote of no-confidence was scheduled, disappeared on Thursday when the Governor General, Michaëlle Jean, agreed to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s request to prorogue (suspend) Parliament until January 26.

This, however, doesn’t mean that Harper’s current government will not fall. It’s just been delayed for a few weeks, giving the Conservatives time to “regroup.” Of course, this means that the other parties also have time to do the same. The outcome seems inevitable.

I’m not too sure what to think of this. In many ways, this is a cop-out. Harper knows that he will be defeated next week, so he requests a time-out. After all, he probably didn’t want to hold the record of having both the longest ruling Conservative minority AND the shortest. MPs had only been sworn in around Halloween, just over a month ago. Joe Clark’s 1979 minority government lasted two months.

This route to a coalition government, where opposition parties band together to over throw the current government would be something that had never been done in Canada before. The last coalition government was in 1917, and they were voted in at an election. This was perhaps one reason why the Governor General agreed to suspend parliament (she could have dissolved parliament, leading up to an election too, but no one wants another election after having one in October).

Some say that this is not a democratic way of doing things. However, nothing can be further from the truth. This process is totally constitutional. It’s not like people are appointing themselves Members of Parliament and forcing the people out of their seats. There is nothing undemocratic about this at all. It’s unfortunate that people don’t know too much about our system of government. And this includes people IN government themselves.  Also, there is a worry that future prime ministers could abuse this by trying to get the Governor General to suspend Parliament each time they face no-confidence votes.

Honestly, I think a coalition government would have been a good choice. It would have made a better-balanced parliament, with a larger “opposition” (the Conservatives against the coalition of NDP and Liberal MPs). We are a very politically segregated country, with Conservative interest mostly in the western provinces and parts of suburban and rural Ontario while the rest of the country Liberal or NDP (except for parts of Quebec who support the Bloc Quebecois). A coalition government will mean a more balanced representation of Canadians from coast to coast.