NDP, Liberals pull a switcheroo
Trading places: Trudeau unveils list of sweeping reforms while Mulcair trumpets fiscal conservatism
It would be far easier for Canadians to keep track of their political parties, it struck me as heard Justin Trudeau and then Tom Mulcair make their respective cases for forming government, if politicians stuck to colouring within the lines set for them by convention and tradition.
But, no. They have to go and willy-nilly upset the applecart, and on the same day to boot, at roughly the same time. In the space of 90 minutes, with nary a warning, political Canada changed utterly. Nothing is sacred anymore.
For Trudeau, the Liberal leader and erstwhile Dauphin, did something truly remarkable in Ottawa Tuesday morning: he embraced full-on the mantle of rip-it-up reformer he’d promised, with refreshing zeal and conviction, back when he was still an underestimated upstart with a famous last name.
Meanwhile NDP leader Mulcair, in an eerie bookend — assuming the Liberals and Dippers didn’t plan this synchronicity — was in Toronto preparing to address a Bay Street crowd and stolidly, soberly make the case for his party as a dependable, businessminded, eminently non-radical custodian of the public purse.
It was as though New Democrats and Liberals had neatly traded places — which of course, judging from recent polls, they have. Mulcair, who is now in contention to become Canada’s first New Democrat prime minister, is all about allaying concerns in the heartland that the Orange would drive the economy into a ditch.
And Trudeau, facing an unfolding collapse in public support and the possible sheering away of his base to the NDP, driven by disaffection over his vote for the anti-terrorist Bill C-51 among other issues, badly needed to restore faith in himself and his purpose.
To a considerable degree, by my lights anyway, both men succeeded in those objectives.
Trudeau’s speech was unremarkable in its delivery. But the content, and the subsequent question-and-answer session with reporters, were anything but. The Liberal leader unveiled a series of 32 proposals, many of which singly, if implemented, would transform Canadian democracy.
Never mind overhauling our antiquated first-past-the-post electoral system, a good idea that drew much of the headline interest, or a non-partisan, merit-based Senate appointment process, which Trudeau has spoken about before.
How about parliamentary committees elected by secret ballot? Or a new Prime Minister’s Question Time, modelled on the British version? Or gender parity in cabinet? Or access to government information, including from the Prime Minister’s Office, by default? Or guaranteed independence and funding for officers of Parliament such as the Parliamentary Budget Officer? What about a legislated end to the anti-democratic abuse of kitchen-sink omnibus bills, and prorogation to avoid confidence votes?
Trudeau promised all this and more. Taken together it amounts to a sweeping re-do of the relationship between electorate and elected. The plan addresses fundamental problems, including the concentration of power in the Prime Minister’s Office, that had their germination long before Stephen Harper ever set foot in the House of Commons. A couple of items seem half-baked (again with the “data-driven” decision making; what does that even mean? Not guided by fanciful daydreams?), but they come well down the list.
It’s a substantial reform package, which will have a salutary effect even if the Liberals lose in October, because some of it is too appealing for the other parties not to steal.
That brings us back to the New Democrats who, of course, will say important elements of the Grit reveal — including of course, fundamental electoral reform — were snatched direct from their policy kit.
That may be so, but it has limited relevance. The interesting bit is that, by deliberate choice, Mulcair is focused not on revolution, but purely workaday concerns.
“I don’t believe budgets balance themselves, nor do I believe they become balanced because you pass a law — zap you’re balanced,” he told his audience, before reeling off a list of Dippers — Tommy Douglas, Roy Romanow, Gary Doer — who were fiscal conservatives in power.
Small-business tax cuts, support for manufacturing, infrastructure spending; it was fare of the kind you’d have heard in a speech 20 years ago from a federal Liberal minister. In effect, Mulcair is making an unabashed play for the moderate, conservative centre. And Trudeau, as befits his new status as a besieged underdog, is swinging for the fences.
These are roles that suit both men.
This will, of course, cause some to suggest again that the Liberals and NDP together would be far more effective than either is alone. But that’s a matter for another day.
A pragmatic, sober-minded NDP with a shot at winning power is probably a good thing for Canada. So is a Liberal party willing, at long last, to cast aside the rotten debris of its old status as the “natural governing party.”
Tuesday was a fine day for democracy in Canada, all told. And Election 2015, we can now be assured, will be about more than the price of soap.