It appears life has become ‘interesting’ in Harper’s Ottawa. At this point, he could well be hanging on by a fraying thread to his minority government. The current state of affairs has been brought about by his own inability to recognize that Canadians haven’t trusted him with a majority to govern with. Being in a minority position usually means a bit of reaching out and compromise — but not Harper.

His little man of confederation — Flaherty brought down an economic update statement on Thursday. The statement was the usual hot air that we get from politicians of all stripes accompanied by no indication that the Conservatives are actually moving to do anything to keep the economy moving. Interestingly enough, Flaherty was flying in the face of what his boss had been touting only a week before in Chile.

Harper lectured world leaders on the necessity of allowing deficits and doing stimulous spending in economic times which have deteriorated at a rate that has been stunning to say the least. The statements go against everything that Harper has ever stood for when it comes to his take on economics. For a brief moment, it appeared that Harper might actually get what needs done… then Flaherty opened his big mouth.

While it has become quite clear that the economic storm that is engulfing the world is not going to be easily calmed, Flaherty’s update is trying to sell Canadians a bill of goods that we are in what is going to be a very short, painless recession and it will all be wrapped up and just a memory by the end of 2009. The government is going to feel some of the pain by selling off assets, denying the public service the right to strike for two years, limiting wage increases to 1.5%, shutting down the equity pay progress that works to make sure women get equal pay for work of equal value and oh yeah, we’ll just kill subsidies for political parties.

Selling as yet unnamed assets in a time when the real estate market is depressed just doesn’t strike me as either bright or prudent. If these assets were unnecessary baggage, they should have been sold when the economy would have brought a good return to the Canadian taxpayer, not at a time when it will be necessary to price to sell and someone with the bucks to spare can snap up a hell of a deal. Ontarians will bring to mind the bargain the purchasers of the 407 toll route got which allows them to now charge through the nose to those who use it.

I don’t have an issue with limiting pay increases for MPs and for the most part the civil service. They are pretty decently paid now in comparison to the thousands who have lost good paying manufacturing jobs in the last few years and are now barely managing to get by with what amounts to McDonald’s level wages. Denial of the right to strike to that sector certainly raises a red flag with me as to just what he Conservatives are planning that their preemptive move is to curtail rights?

The true poison pill in the update is the move to eliminate public money for political parties. Democracies cost money to run, that money either comes directly out of our pockets for the party of our choice or it comes through subsidies to somewhat level the playing ground for political parties. This particular one is based on the number of votes each party received in the last election.

As the Conservatives have rightly claimed, this means they will be losing the greater amount of funding as the party with the larger portion of the votes. While they are busy spinning that as their willingness to fall on their own sword for the good of the national economy, the reality is that the Conservatives and in particular Harper are out after blood.

For Harper and idealogues within his party, it isn’t good enough to be the governing party at the moment. He is intent on wiping the Liberals from the face of the political scene. If he should succeed at that, do you doubt even for a moment he will set his sights on the next closest rival and the next until there is one party left standing? Ever heard of a one party democracy? It’s impossible.

I don’t disagree with the principle that political parties should be connected enough with their supporters to be able to raise the funds they need to operate effectively. Like a lot of principles, the reality of how it plays out often differs from the principle. There is no doubt the Liberals could be doing things a lot differently, and should be. As anyone well knows, it is extremely difficult to make the changes needed when you’re under a sustained attack from the likes of the Conservatives.

At this point, the opposition parties have united enough to enter into talks about forming a coalition to bring Harper down. Understandably Harper is screaming foul and trying to paint he opposition as being undemocratic. He needs to remember that it is a minority government because he didn’t get the majority of the vote in the last election. The uniting of the opposition against him, brings the majority of the vote to bear on him.

I’m not sure that I really like the optics of who could land in what position in a Liberal NDP coalition but I also don’t like Harper’s efforts to dismantle democracy in this country especially while the economy is sliding into a hole.

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