LARRY'S CORNER- Hamilton's Former Mayor Speaks

On the Precipice

By Larry Di Ianni
(posted December 5, 2008)

I have been following federal politics for a long time now. Even before Pierre Trudeau came on the scene and excited those of my generation to take an active role in politics, I was already an ardent fan of the political game. My friends used to talk about Saturday night’s hockey game at school. I sought friends who had opinions on the latest leadership contest at either the provincial or federal level, or the election that was happening somewhere in the country. I think I was born a political junkie.

In fact some of my proudest memories are of meeting many of the Prime Ministers that have led Canada over the last 50 years. I recall meeting Prime Minister Diefenbaker at the Hamilton Forum. I regrettably didn’t meet Mike Pearson, but met his son, a former Ambassador to the USSR, and have met many others since. I met Pierre Trudeau several times and have an autographed biography of his in my library. I met Joe Clark at a community festival at the Hamilton Armouries. I met John Turner in Toronto. Brian Mulroney, I saw at a distance, but met and shook hands with Kim Campbell in Stoney Creek, Jean Chretien at the Convention Center, Paul Martin in a number of places including when I was Mayor at 24 Sussex, and Stephen Harper even before he became Prime Minister.

As part of my treasured collections I cherish the Radwanski biography of Pierre Trudeau which, as I say, he signed during the 1980 campaign. I also have Christmas cards from Pierre Trudeau, Joe Clark, Brian Mulroney, Jean Chretien and Paul Martin. They are part of a collection of political cards that I have been keeping these many years.

My point is that as a Canadian I have followed and respected our democratic, parliamentary system of government regardless of who was in power. I have not always been a partisan in federal politics. I admired Joe Clark and liked Robert Stansfield. I liked Dief the Chief and thought what they did to him was shameful. I respected the legacy and decency of Mike Pearson. I was energized by Pierre Trudeau’s intellect and charisma. I respected Chretien’s political astuteness and I liked Paul Martin’s understanding of Canada and the role of large urban centers in our country. I have never been ashamed of any of these leaders, and although I couldn’t vote for some of them for this or that reason, I respected their commitment to our country.

Until now!

Stephen Harper has shaken my respect. And it isn’t for the reasons you might think. It isn’t because I ran for the Liberals this past election and I/we lost. We didn’t have the right campaign, nor did we have the right leadership, with all due respect to Mr. Dion’s decency. As we saw last night in his response to the Prime Minister’s address to the nation, Mr. Dion just can’t communicate. Nor am I perplexed that the Governor General prorogued parliament. It was her call. It was a tough decision and she made it. We need to respect that.

So why has Mr. Harper so shaken me? It is because the Prime Minister took a political crisis, mostly created by him, turned it into a parliamentary crisis and upped the ante to make this political blunder into a national unity crisis. And why did he do this? He did it to save his job as Prime Minister. He rolled the dice on the unity of the country in order to preserve his own power over the country.

I think Mr. Harper could have done things differently. Even if he had not wanted to accommodate the opposition in any way, he could have found a way to use the economic crisis we are in to present a reasonable economic statement to the country and the opposition parties. He could have done it without stripping away funds for parties, striking rights from workers and women interested in equal pay for work of equal value. He chose not to do this. And then, when he was cornered, he felt he had to demonize the Liberals by telling everyone that they had sold the country out to ‘separatists’ and ‘socialists’. He demonized Layton and particularly demonized Duceppe and the Bloc.

In fact, Harper went beyond name-calling. He actually stretched the truth a number of times about the obligations and rights of opposition parties in a parliamentary democracy. He misrepresented facts about the Canadian flag not being present at the coalition’s signing ceremony. He even fudged about who was in the coalition. History will punish this prime minister for these variances with reality.

And what is the result of this? Prorogation. Mr. Harper now has breathing room to try to present a budget the opposition will be forced to accept. He will be happy about this and the rising criticisms within his own party will be stemmed. That is good for him personally. But the tragedy of this reality is that Mr. Harper has awakened the nationalist giant in Quebec. It remains to be seen whether Mr. Charest and the federalist Liberals in Quebec, who were sailing towards a majority government in Monday’s provincial election, will indeed get it; or will the Parti Quebecois steal victory away from Charest because of Mr. Harper’s caustic bombast?

Politics is a partisan game. It is played for keeps by big boys and girls. No one forces politicians to run for office. They do it willingly. So no one should feel sorry when the game gets tough and political noses are bloodied. That is part of the sport. However, history occasionally offers circumstances of critical, defining moments. Wars, economic depressions, terrorist attacks, natural disasters are all examples that require ordinary leaders to reach for greatness. Many leaders succeed. Macdonald during the formation of our country, FDR during the Great Depression, Churchill during WWll, Trudeau during the Constitutional debates and FLQ crises, are all examples where mere mortals led their countries through panic and angst. And then there are occasions when leaders sink to their baser partisan instincts. Stephen Harper, I fear, may be remembered as one of those leaders. I pray I am wrong and that the PM, now given a second chance to show his better side, will rise to the occasion. His recent performance doesn’t give one much hope. And as a Canadian, that makes me sad.

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