Oh for an effective Opposition

I have never made it a secret that I am a Liberal supporter but that is because they are the only party that even comes close to meeting my requirements for governing.  It is not because I am particularly partisan.

I know that the best thing for Canada is for the government to be effectively opposed by the other parties.  They should be there to keep the government honest and to push the government to make better decisions and to develop better policies.  

Unfortunately none of the Opposition Parties are doing that.  In order for the Opposition Parties to effectively oppose the government they actually have to take positions on the issues and stick to them.  They have to be able to present cogent and coherent arguments against what the government is doing and make their own proposals on how they believe the government should address a given issue.

This has not happened in a long time.  The Liberals and the NDP were complete failures at it when Stephen Harper was in power, although Stephane Dion came close with his "Green Shift" plan before the 2008 election.  Canadians were not ready for that yet, which is one of the reason why Mr. Dion was unsuccessful but at least Mr. Dion actually made an effort to mount an effective opposition to the Harper government.  Some commentators like to point out that Mr. Mulcair was effective but they base that on his work during Question Period, which only happens for 45 minutes a day and only when the House is sitting.  For the rest of the time he was no more effective than Opposition leaders that came before him, or after him.  Mr. Trudeau was also ineffective as an Opposition leader although we can never know if that was because he was no good at that job or because he was busy rebuilding and renewing the Liberal Party.

As I have stated before in this space I remember when Opposition Parties were actually effective.  Both Ed Broadbent and Joe Clark were very effective against Pierre Trudeau, managing to push his government in directions that they would not have gone if they were not so effective.  And Ed Broadbent really shined when Pierre Trudeau had a minority government.  It was his efforts during that time that lead to the idea that the NDP can be the "kingmaker" in a minority government situation.  

The last effective Opposition leader was Preston Manning.  Once he left the effectiveness of the Opposition parties went into the toilet and that has been true ever since.  

Here is the funny part.  The Liberals are currently leading a minority government.  It is a golden opportunity for the Opposition parties to push the government in a direction they would like them to go.  If any of the them actually proposed policies and then pushed the government to adopt them it would probably lead to their partial adoption at least.  Unfortunately, Mr. O'Toole and Mr. Singh are no Clark and Broadbent.  They do not have the political smarts to actually take advantage of the current situation.  They have allowed themselves to become mired in "gotcha" politics and the belief that scandal mongering will put them on the government benches.  They are delusional for thinking so but there it is.

So what we end up with is a government that is effectively unopposed even though they are in a minority situation.  The government has pretty much been able to do what it wants without any real effective pushback from the Opposition parties.  This can be a recipe for disaster but so far the current government has shown a very high level of competence, especially during these trying times.  

I am not too upset by the situation because the Official Opposition party is the most regressive party we have seen at the Federal level in the whole history of Canada.  So, having any of their policy positions even being considered would be bad news for Canada.  As well, the NDP has not had a coherent position on any issue for a long time so any proposal they make would probably just do more harm than good because they do not think things through to determine any medium to long-term impacts their proposals might have.  And the Bloc is the Bloc, a party founded to break up Canada.  Although we cannot completely dismiss any proposal they make, without thoroughly examining it, in all likelihood most proposals they make would probably not be in the best interests of Canada.

Canada is best served by a functioning and effective government being opposed by a functioning and effective Opposition.  We have been lucky that we have had the former for the last five years but we have not had the latter for more than two decades.  That has to change and the only way it is going to is for them to stop with the trivialities.  In the past five years the Trudeau government has left so many opportunities for the Opposition to effectively oppose them if they would have only had the forethought and attention span to identify those opportunities and develop coherent alternatives to them.  Unfortunately, I do not believe the current set of Opposition leaders have the wherewithal to make that happen and Canada is worse off for it.