Spring 2011

PRACTICAL AND AUTHORITATIVE ANALYSIS OF KEY NATIONAL ISSUES Editorial Harper’s : Dissecting the revolution icies. Families get small tax credits for A Revolution Manqué By Daniel Drache arper was elected as a no-nonsense sports equipment, apprenticeship tools, Daniel Drache is the acting director of conservative who promised to and trucker’s lunches. Harper has added H the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies some big-ticket items such as the tax-free shrink the size of the government and at . reduce its role in the economy. His “red- savings account and added to the child meat” conservatism promised to lower ance and return the national accounts to tax benefit that replaced the discredited taxes and usher in an era of smaller gov- the black has failed. The government’s Keynesian-inspired family allowance. ernment, but after five years in office, his actual and projected deficits are larger For young families, these giveaways lend governance revolution has stalled. than any the Liberals managed to achieve. credibility to his “conservative-who- New hires in the civil service and On fiscal management, Harper is hardly cares” image. military have added more than 30,000 a textbook conservative—the Pentecostal Ideologically, though, his government people to the government’s payroll. preacher espousing small government. revolution will not be remembered for Spending jumped both pre- and post- Significantly, many Canadian families these small gestures. If one looks at the recession. The plan to restore fiscal bal- like what they see from some of his pol- Harper’s Canada, page 3

The Man and the Revolution 2010 in review: Canada’s values tion, ’s Conservatives The Democratization By Michael Adams of Everything have now governed for half a decade and Michael Adams is a noted commentator are apparently unperturbed ocial and technological changes over on social values and social change in by the steely hierarchy over which the the past half-century have produced North America. The founding president S prime minister is said to preside. powerful tensions that leaders who of the Environics group of research and communications consulting companies, would seek to govern highly educated Michael Adams is the author of How We See Ourselves societies like Canada must navigate. six books, including the most recent, What do Canadians think about how Socially, the decline of deference toward just published by Penguin Canada, their country is faring these days, with traditional forms of institutional authority Stayin’ Alive: How Canadian Baby Boomers its perennial minority governments and has meant that bureaucrats and elected Will Work, Play, and Find Meaning in the Second Half of Their Adult Lives. its old-fashioned top-down leader? Are leaders can no longer assume that the 2010 in review, page 5 public will assent to their decisions or in by WikiLeaks—whose teeth have assume that mandarins know best (even proved a little sharper than those of Can- when they do). Technologically, the ada’s increasingly dysfunctional access The contents of this issue are listed in the Features box on page 2. Internet has enabled an incredible pro- to information regime. liferation of disruptive practices, from Even as online idealists herald the citizen journalism published on blogs, to “democratization” of everything and Twitter-fuelled activism, to the forced advocate for open data, open govern- transparency imposed from the outside ment, and new forms of citizen participa-

Canada Watch is a publication of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies of York University

PRACTICAL AND AUTHORITATIVE ANALYSIS OF KEY NATIONAL ISSUES Canada Watch Spring 2011

PRACTICAL AND AUTHORITATIVE ANALYSIS OF KEY NATIONAL ISSUES

The Harper Governance Revolution: Editor Daniel Drache, Acting Director Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, Taking Minority Government to Its Limit York University Features Managing Editor Editorial Global Retreat Laura Taman Harper’s Canada: Full Speed Ahead Columnists in this issue Dissecting the revolution Canada the middle power: Daniel Drache Paul Heinbecker By Daniel Drache ...... 1 Lost in translation By Paul Heinbecker ...... 23 Michael Adams Tim Kaposy The Man and the Revolution Our leader and the Obama charm: Tom Flanagan Imre Szeman 2010 in review: Canada’s values The good leader syndrome Seth Feldman Philip Resnick By Michael Adams ...... 1 By Tim Kaposy and Imre Szeman . . . .25 Political paralysis in C. Scott Clark Janine Brodie Death by One Thousand contemporary Canada Peter Devries Simon Black Cuts: Neoliberalism’s By Tom Flanagan ...... 7 Win – Lose Strategy Doug Peters Roger Keil He’s still here Canada’s fractured Arthur Donner Errol Mendes By Seth Feldman ...... 9 political culture Peter H. Russell Fred Fletcher Philip Resnick ...... 28 Christian Nadeau Liette Gilbert and Harper’s Rescue Manufactured ignorance: of the Economy Harper, the census, David Schneiderman Robert Kellerman The Harper revolution: Fiscal social inequality Production conservatism—Yes, no, maybe By Janine Brodie ...... 30 WordsWorth Communications By C . Scott Clark and Peter Devries . . 11 Conquering the urban nation The global meltdown: By Simon Black and Roger Keil . . . . . 32 Contact for information Fiscal stimulus and Canada Watch the structural deficit The Full Measure of 7th Floor, York Research Tower the Man and His Policies 4700 Keele St. By Doug Peters and Arthur Donner . . . 13 The revolution of , M3J 1P3 Harper: The Unlikely the night watchman Phone 416-736-5499 Constitutional Revolutionary Errol Mendes ...... 35 and the Battle Against Fax 416-650-8069 The Harper government’s Prorogation www.robarts.yorku.ca communication strategy: Prorogation—Prime ministers For information regarding future issues, The message, the message, must not become kings contact Laura Taman, Coordinator, the message Robarts Centre. By Peter H . Russell ...... 16 By Fred Fletcher ...... 37 Please address comments to Constitutional rule bending: Daniel Drache, Acting Director, Politics of immigration and When angry citizens push Robarts Centre. the controversial refugee reforms back and fight for democracy By Liette Gilbert ...... 39 Canada Watch is produced by By Christian Nadeau ...... 18 the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies Tough on crime, big on prisons Constitutional reform by stealth: of York University. By Robert Kellerman ...... 41 The creeping transformation Copyright © 2011 of executive authority The Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies By David Schneiderman ...... 20 Printed in Canada ISSN 1191-7733

Real world challenges demand different angles, different approaches, and different attitudes. www.research.yorku.ca/home/index.html

2 Canada Watch • Spring 2011 Harper’s Canada continued from page 1 bigger picture, the Harper government between his values and the priorities of cannot claim to be minimalist in the lives Harper’s mixture of Canadians. of Canadians. It has already added $200 ruthless pragmatism billion to the national debt, and only The Trust Factor: What You some of this was used to fight the reces- in dealing with See Is Not Who He Really Is sion. The government’s approach to the Nik Nanos is one of Canada’s best poll- massive structural deficit it created is to Parliament, the sters in tracking the shifting moods and ignore the opinions of experts who micromanagement of expectations of Canadians. A February 14, advocate restoring the cuts to the GST 2011 poll revealed that none of Harper’s and eliminating any further tax cuts to government, and the red-meat issues are top priorities for Canada’s corporations. Ronald Reagan Canadians. Nanos asked over one thou- in the and relentless strategy of sand Canadians, What is the most were “tax-cut” conservatives who spent important national issue of concern? billions and created a poisoned chalice one-way messaging Health care, at 22 percent, was the top of massive debt mismanagement. response; jobs and the economy came has provided him with second, while 10 percent prioritized the Success by a Thousand Cuts the tools to govern as environment. Only 5 percent of respond- Harper’s own agenda is not very different ents put debt and deficit reduction as in broad outline from that of other con- if he had a majority. their top priority. servative leaders, like Ronald Reagan, For the Conservatives, the million- who ran up massive deficits. However, dollar question is how to increase his made-in-Canada, kick-ass conser­ cannot continue to row or steer the national support from the current 35.9 vatism has changed the institutional machinery of the state effectively. For a percent to win a majority government. makeup of Canada and its state – citizen prime minister who prefers stealth to Pollsters tell us that 35 percent of Can- culture. The HST has jacked up the cost accountability, what better way to achieve adians would give the Tories 138 seats if of consumer goods, and the tax grab the first and most difficult of his govern- an election were held today; that is 5 pushed Gordon Campbell to resign as ance objectives? There is none better. seats less than they currently hold. The the premier of . Globally, is the weakest Lib- Liberals, even under the lacklustre lead- Canada’s role has been downgraded, as eral leader since . The ership of Ignatieff, continue to garner the the Harper government has become an struggle for control between the Jean support of almost 30 percent of Canad- avatar of US geopolitics in Afghani­stan Chrétien and loyalists left the ians. Amazingly, the Liberal brand and elsewhere. Human rights and Liberals divided, feckless, and confused remains a powerful vote-catcher. If an ­middle-powership, once the foreign pol- in the eyes of the Canadian public. The election were held today, projections icy signature of Canada, have been put Liberal Party has been kicked around in claim that the Iggy Liberals could pick on the back burner. Canadians live in a the rough and tumble of “no-rules” par- up an additional 10 or more seats in the more unequal society than ever before, tisanship in this minority government. House, believe it or not. and Harper’s goal to gift more public Harper’s mixture of ruthless pragma- The next Parliament will be larger resources to private enterprise goes tism in dealing with Parliament, the with new seats created in British Colum- further than those his Liberal predeces- micromanagement of government, and bia, Alberta, and Ontario, reflecting sors lavished on corporate Canada. His the relentless strategy of one-way mes- fast-growing urban areas. However, tough-on-crime legislation and his low- saging has provided him with the tools these are not likely to alter Harper’s profile management of the Canada – US to govern as if he had a majority. He has chances for forming a majority. In 2008, relationship have paid handsome divi- centralized more power in the Prime the Conservatives were 13 seats shy of a dends in his political heartland. Minister’s Office than had any of his majority. On his website, threehundre- Many in the media portray his “bite- predecessors; the result is that he has deight.blogspot.com, Éric Grenier has by-bite” approach in Parliament as a almost total control over every aspect of created an electoral profile of the new winning strategy against a lacklustre government, from Cabinet ministers to ridings, which shows that Harper stands opposition. He has cut the public service the civil service on downward. The crit- a reasonable chance of taking only three through attrition rather than a bloody- ical test remains, can Harper succeed in out of the seven new seats. minded wholesale restructuring of gov- winning over the public to his political Much will change between today and ernment. If you cut enough muscle, it brand of conservatism? So far, he has not election day. The goes without saying, the government found a way to bridge the growing divide Harper’s Canada, page 4

Canada Watch • Spring 2011 3 Harper’s Canada continued from page 3 (NDP) may bear the full brunt of the current state of disunity on the left. It is For a brilliant tactician, Harper’s gaffes, almost axiomatic that as Liberal fortunes mistakes, and miscalculations are self-inflicted rise, the New Democrats numbers nose- dive. They are fighting for the loyalty of … and hence his greatest burden. an immense number of centre-left Can- adians. According to current scenarios, the NDP would lose to the Liberal and and Harper’s role leading the attack on torate.) The 2008 budget statement that Conservative front-runners in almost Canada’s immigration-friendly policies. precipitated Harper’s greatest political every part of the country except Quebec In the Indo-Canadian community, crisis—prorogation and the short-lived, and the Maritimes. Harper hopes to capitalize on their oppo- ill-conceived attempt at governance by a Canada’s political map has changed sition to same-sex marriage and split Liberal – NDP coalition with Bloc sup- since the Liberals’ repeated successes their vote. The stakes are high and the port—stands out as his greatest blunder. between the 1960s and 1980s, when their question is—will Canada’s multicultural Harper prorogued Parliament for two status as Canada’s governing party was train switch tracks to embrace Harper’s months in order to avoid testing the unchallengeable with Ontario and Que- hard-line conservatism with its prag- confidence of the House in his policies bec voters in their back pocket. Today, matic edge? However, experts argue that as required by the Westminster model Canada’s political system is both region- his party’s chances at splitting off chunks of parliamentary government. alized and fragmented. In the standoff of the vote from the Liberals are much His unwavering support for environ- between Canada’s four political parties, exaggerated. Missing from this picture is mentally disastrous projects like the oil each one has a sizable regional political the deep well of voter distrust around sands has hurt his electoral chances in base, but no single party has a winning Harper’s policies as well as his leader- large urban centres, with young and first- national strategy. The electoral heartland ship. The distrust factor has become the time voters and with angry environmen- of all of Canada’s political parties has most important liability after five years talists. Without the support of the broad been regionalized to an unprecedented in office. There is a lot about his manage- centre, Harper will not get his cherished degree. ment style to upset Canadians. majority. Harper’s most dim-witted policy mis- For a brilliant tactician, Harper’s The Ethnic Vote: take was the attack on ’s gaffes, mistakes, and miscalculations are Harper’s Strategic Variable long-form census and the fabricated argu- self-inflicted—the product of his rigid The breakthrough in this unwieldy pol- ment that the census violated the privacy ideology and personal temperament and itical landscape lies in Harper finding a of Canadians. The subtext is that the vital hence his greatest burden. This kind of framing issue around which to swing social information the long form provides ideological head-butting sends a viral anywhere from 10 to 20 seats to his is a critical tool for Canadians to under- message to many Canadians that this favour. His target audience and potential stand how their society functions, where government cannot be trusted. It is a vote bank—Canada’s ethnic voters— it is succeeding, and where the big and government that prides itself in one-way stand between Harper’s big victory and small gaps are. What Canadians saw was messaging to Canadians; it has no feed- failure. A leaked document reveals that a political leader who forced the head of back loops and is not engaged with the the ultra-secretive Conservative election Statistics Canada to resign in protest and public. It acts in a discriminatory and machine’s plan of attack is to blitz on principle. Canadians were not wrong mean-spirited way to those who disagree Toronto’s and ’s immigrant to ask themselves, what does Harper fear with its ideological ends, and it takes communities with TV ads, radio messag- from this strategic information-gathering pride in being a government whose ing, and social media networking. The exercise? Is it rational? agenda does not include social justice. four target ethnic groups are Chinese, In Canada’s fragmented, regionalized South Asians, Ukrainians, and Jews; Thei Al enated Centre: political system, Harper’s governance communities that inhabit suburban rid- Harper’s Bad-Hair revolution is founded on the black arts ings and have voted Liberal for genera- Election Nightmare of secrecy and stealth as much as ideol- tions may determine the outcome of the The dumbest thing that Harper has done ogy. What Canadians fear most about his next election. in the last five years is anger and alienate conservative revolution manqué is not Harper’s work is cut out for him. centre, liberal, and left Canadians, who knowing what other programs would be Tories fare worst with South Asian and constitute well over 50 percent of voters. dismantled, lost, or marginalized if he Chinese voters, who remember the anti- (If Bloc support is included, this grows possessed the jewel in the crown—a immigrant policies of the Reform Party to over two-thirds of the Canadian elec- majority government.

4 Canada Watch • Spring 2011 2010 in review continued from page 1 Canadians frustrated, impatient for increasingly direct democracy (or at [W]e like the free-market system as much least proportional representation) as as Americans do, but are more likely technology enables new forms of par- ticipation and the culture increasingly to believe taxes are generally a good thing values autonomy and self-expression? Or in a time of economic uncertainty and because taxes support valued public services roiling geopolitical complexity, do Can- adians appreciate a strong, single- like health care and education. minded leader who has a vision or at least an agenda and tirelessly exacts compliance from the institutions of gov- The Queen, however, is not widely seen public investments, most Canadians fa- ernment? as an important national symbol—and, vour a focus on prevention over en­force­ This fall Environics updated its Focus alas, we went into the field too early to ment and punishment. Public support for Canada public opinion research pro- ask about William and Kate. the death penalty remains at an all-time gram, which began in 1976. The picture low. Over the past decade, in fact, Can- that emerges from our most recent Cautious Optimism adians have increasingly expressed the sounding is of a society that has consid- On the pressing issues of the day, Can- view that convicted murderers should be erable faith in its institutions, but a some- adians think our economy is relatively sentenced to with no what diminished confidence in the strong and that our standard of living is parole, instead of execution. The categor- people running them. Canadians are good. In fact, nine in ten of us feel that ical good-and-evil moralism that rational- more positive than ever about our parlia- our quality of life is better than that of our izes the death penalty diminishes in mentary system; they express little inter- southern neighbours, a finding our appeal with each generation. est in tinkering with our electoral pro- Fathers of Confederation would surely As well, increasing majorities of Can- cess, our system of government, or our find reassuring. On the whole, Canad- adians favour gun control (this before the Constitution. (In other polls over the past ians are relieved that we seem to have Tucson shooting), abortion rights, and few years, Environics has found that dodged the “great recession” but express same-sex marriage. In addition, six in while pundits fret about minority govern- caution about the near term, saying this ten Canadians believe that the global ments, the public is unperturbed by is no time for a shopping spree. economic crisis is no excuse to stop them.) At the same time, Canadians are The data also show that we like the working on environmental issues. considerably less confident than they free-market system as much as Amer- Pluralities of Canadians believe that have been in the past about the politi- icans do, but are more likely to believe Aboriginal problems are more the result cians and political parties working the taxes are generally a good thing because of public attitudes and government poli- levers of our institutions. taxes support valued public services like cies than they are self-inflicted. Canad- health care and education. ians want the emphasis of government Cultural Confidence Our beloved heath-care system is the policies to be on improving the lives of On more general issues of national iden- most sacred of our cows and Canadians Aboriginal peoples both on- and off- tity and the state of the country, Canad- strongly continue to endorse the public reserve—as opposed to focusing on legal ians are sanguine. They are culturally system, with eight in ten saying it should issues like self-government and settling confident: proud of their country, its be funded through tax dollars rather than land claims. freedom, its diversity, and its symbols. In private insurance and their own pocket- Immigration Good addition to Parliament, at least in the books (although a more impatient for Canada abstract, Canadians continue to place boomer-driven majority now believe we great importance on such national sym- should be able to purchase medical Canadians continue to be open to immi- bols as the Charter of Rights and Free- services to ensure timely access). gration, and are much more likely than doms, the flag, our national parks, and any other society in the world today to the national anthem. C rime and Security: believe immigrants are good for the We also like the RCMP, multicultural- No Automatic Buy-In country. Still, Canadians would like to ism, and Canadian literature and music. On other issues, Canadians today are see more evidence that immigrants are Further down the list of national symbols less likely than at any time in our 35 years adopting “Canadian” values, which, for that make us proud are hockey, bilingual- of tracking to believe crime is increasing. many, means embracing gender equality. ism, the CBC, and our national capital. What’s more, in terms of crime-related 2010 in review, page 6

Canada Watch • Spring 2011 5 2010 in review continued from page 5 Judging America Perhaps because they believe things are going in Smart Ways Far from being automatically anti-Amer- reasonably well, Canadians are not pushing ican, Canadians appear to be judging America according to its actions and its for some kind of social media-driven leadership and are quite prepared to admire and even follow America when revolution. Their dissatisfaction with their they believe it is headed in the right dir- political overlords suggests to me that they ection. Public opinion data show that positive opinion of the United States simply want their leaders to exhibit some of surged by 14 percentage points between June and December 2008, in the wake the wisdom, dignity, and even idealism that of President ’s election. Most of the views that I have been our institutions seem to point them toward. writing about here have been stable or evolving slowly over the past three and a half decades, although Canadian con- with their political overlords suggests to Canadians Are Not fidence in our economy and the way it me that they simply want their leaders to Drifting to the Right is regulated, and our pride in national exhibit some of the wisdom, dignity, and At the same time, there is little evidence symbols have increased notably over the even idealism that our institutions seem to suggest that the unforeseen stability past three years. to point them toward. of the current Conservative government A close look at the numbers suggests It is important to note that Canadians’ is a symptom of a more conservative a shift occurred in the late 1990s when dissatisfaction with political leaders cuts population. If Canadians are moderately the views of baby boomers became across parties and personalities. Al- satisfied with the Conservative govern- mixed with growing numbers of their though expert opinion might suggest that ment (enough to give them successive Gen X and Gen Y offspring, not to men- the Harper government has made a minorities and keep them polling in the tion an increased proportion of immi- marked departure from the style of previ- mid-30s), it is not because Canadians grants, who tend to express as much or ous governments (including Progressive are drifting to the right. Canadian public more pride in their adoptive country than Conservative ones), the public does not attitudes on major economic and safety do Canadian-born citizens. seem to blame the Conservatives dispro- net issues have changed little in recent decades. It is important to note that Can- Dissatisfaction portionately for the combative tone in adians’ dissatisfaction with political with Leaders or for any radical change to the direction of their country. leaders cuts across parties, and on Other factors influencing the evolution As for Harper himself, Canadians find social issues Canadians are generally of public opinion in Canada have been him a less-than-magnetic figure, but they becoming more liberal. The prime min- a generally robust economy, an increas- ister was quite right when he observed ingly educated population, and a media don’t distrust him as much as his polit- that he and much of his caucus are more environment in which communication ical opponents and educated urban conservative than the political centre of and self-expression have exploded. elites would like them to. People like the gravity in this country. But for now, Can- These last conditions bring us back to fact that he is a decisive, if sometimes adians seem to be willing to be governed the question of whether Canadians controversial, leader, and in the absence by a steady hand who embodies neither believe that our leaders’ current approach of apparent leadership at the helm of the their greatest hopes nor their deepest to governance remains appropriate in a Liberal Party, the plurality find him fears. wired, egalitarian, globalized, urban acceptable as prime minister. world. As the foregoing numbers sug- gest, the people of Canada are proud of their country—especially its democracy— Learn more about Canada Watch and the and tend to think it is on the right track. Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies at Perhaps because they believe things are going reasonably well, Canadians are not pushing for some kind of social media- www.yorku.ca/robarts driven revolution. Their dissatisfaction

6 Canada Watch • Spring 2011 Political paralysis in contemporary Canada

knew the repeal of gay marriage would Modest Changes at Best By Tom Flanagan be defeated. uring its time in power, Stephen Tom Flanagan is a professor of political DHarper’s government has not had a science at the University of . majority in either the House of Com- Crucial New Initiatives mons or the Senate, and has had to The Conservatives have introduced a contend with a civil service and a judi- Does anyone large number of criminal law measures ciary shaped by 12 years of Liberal whose common themes are the specifi- appointments. Given these constraints, seriously maintain cation of new offences, longer terms of policy change has been incremental and punishment, and restriction of prisoners’ marginal at best. that cancellation of “rights,” such as collecting old age secur- There has been no constitutional the Court Challenges ity and guaranteed income supplement change, though perhaps the proposal for while incarcerated. If this whole body of a single national securities regulator will Program, or stronger legislation is passed and implemented be called that if it survives the govern- (far from certain in a minority Parlia- ment’s reference to the Supreme Court support for Israel, or ment), our criminal justice system would of Canada. Nor has there been any major become marginally more punitive but institutional change. Pleading a need for reduction in the GST would still be far from American levels haste before an impending election, has wrought a basic of punishment and incarceration. Harper abandoned his own innovative One could go on itemizing the differ- procedure for House of Commons com- transformation in ences that a Conservative government mittee hearings when he made his sec- has made. There are indeed many, but ond appointment to the Court. He did Canadian society? they are all relatively marginal. Does introduce fixed dates for general elec- anyone seriously maintain that cancella- tions but then violated the spirit of his tion of the Court Challenges Program, or own legislation in 2008, leaving it more tions to corporate and personal income stronger support for Israel, or reduction or less a dead letter. Senate reform has tax that the Martin government had pre- in the GST has wrought a basic transfor- gone nowhere fast, so that Harper is fill- viously promised. mation in Canadian society? In terms of ing the Senate with Conservative parti- The Conservatives refused to proceed public policy, Canada in 2010 under sans. He may still achieve limitation of with a couple of Martin initiatives, spe- Stephen Harper was not fundamentally Senate terms to 8, 10, or 12 years, though cifically the Kelowna Accord, which different from what it was in 2005 under I suspect that even that small step will aimed to put more money into Aboriginal Paul Martin. not happen unless he can get Conserva- programming, as well as the Liberal plan tive majorities in both the Senate and the for a national public system of day care. Fundamental House of Commons. These were important decisions, to be Transformation of sure, but they did not change Canada; Party Competition Continuity and Change they simply left the country in the same In terms of party politics, however, the In some major areas of public policy, the state of hideous oppression at which it change has truly been fundamental and Harper government has continued Lib- had arrived after 12 years of Liberal gov- transformational. The Liberals won eral policies. The Conservative spending ernment. majority governments in 1993, 1997, and track was about the same as that of Paul Many goals of Conservative policy 2000 largely because Brian Mulroney’s Martin’s government, until the 2008 remain unfulfilled. The Wheat Board is victorious coalition had fragmented into recession led to a surge of deficit spend- still the monopoly purchaser of western the Reform Party, the Bloc Québécois, ing in the name of stimulus. Harper wheat and barley, and the gun registry and a Progressive Conservative remnant. continued, and indeed accelerated, the still exists, though enforcement of long- At the turn of the century, political com- military buildup initiated by Martin, while gun registration has been suspended. In mentators were claiming, some with joy, extending the combat mission in Afghan- spite of running against gay marriage in and some with sorrow, that the Liberals istan to which the Liberals had commit- the 2005 – 6 election campaign, the Con- would be in power forever because they ted Canada. Harper did introduce some servatives failed to repeal it once they faced no real competition. Such predic- tax cuts, which the Liberals opposed— came to power, and Harper took it off tions only increased when Paul Martin most notably the two-point reduction in the agenda by scheduling a free vote in replaced Jean Chrétien as Liberal leader. the GST—but he also implemented reduc- the House of Commons in which he Political paralysis, page 8

Canada Watch • Spring 2011 7 Political paralysis continued from page 7 Parties that do not fear defeat become complacent and even corrupt in office, Even if Harper were to win a majority, as evidenced by the Liberal sponsorship it would probably be a narrow one, scandal. However, Stephen Harper solved that problem by bringing about not robust enough to serve as the basis for the 2003 merger between the and the Progressive Conserva- implementing his mythical “hidden agenda.” tives. Reuniting the right made it possible for the new Conservative Party of Can- ada to get back on the winning trajectory can grow that majority by continuing to seats—a virtual impossibility. Of course, that had started in 1979, when win even minority victories in elections. there may be other ways to cobble temporarily drove Pierre Trudeau from Nevertheless, majority control of the together a majority, but it will not be easy power. House of Commons still seems tantaliz- under any scenario. Of course, there are no final solutions ingly difficult to achieve, as long as the Even if Harper were to win a majority, in politics. Solving one problem always Bloc continues to win 40 or 50 seats in it would probably be a narrow one, not creates others. Now we have moved from Quebec. robust enough to serve as the basis for a decade of uncompetitive one-party rule Even if the Conservatives succeed in implementing his mythical “hidden in which government was relatively passing their new legislation to increase agenda.” The best forecast is that, what- unchecked to a decade of hypercom- the House of Commons by about 30 ever the electoral fortunes of his party, he petitive minority Parliaments, in which seats (all in Ontario, Alberta, and British will carry on with the incremental, prag- governments have great difficulty imple- Columbia) after the next census, a major- matic, sometimes opportunistic course menting any agenda. Unedifying? Abso- ity will be difficult to reach. For example, he has followed thus far. Supporters of lutely. Transformative? Hardly. in a House of 340 seats, 171 is a majority. other parties may dislike his govern- Running against the weakest Liberal ment’s policies and seek to defeat him— Future Prospects leader in history, the Conservatives won that is called democracy—but hysterical Harper will get a Conservative majority 143 seats in 2008. To get a bare majority rhetoric about Conservative policies and in the Senate if his government can sur- after 2014, they would have to hold all the effect of their implementation con- vive for a few months into 2011, and he those seats and win 29 of the 32 new tributes nothing to intelligent debate.

The Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies

he Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies supports inter- The Robarts Centre offers a strong program of high-level Tdisciplinary and discipline-specific research pertinent seminars, workshops, and conferences on major issues, to the study of Canada and “Canada in the World ”. In focusing on Canadian perspectives on Communications, practice, this has meant an orientation toward broader Culture, the Fine Arts, History, Political Economy, Public Canadian and international scholarly and policy-making Policy, and International Relations . Participants include York communities, inquiries into comparative perspectives on faculty and students, Canadian and international scholars, the Canadian mosaic, and assistance to York scholars in and the larger community of . working with their counterparts in other countries . Current, ongoing work at the Centre includes research Faculty at the Robarts Centre, including the Director, initiatives on the public domains and international stan- the Associate Director, and other Robarts researchers, dards, Canadian cinema, and issues pertaining to media regularly teach courses and contribute to curriculum perspectives on Canada . The Centre acts as a research development in areas pertaining to Canadian, North arm for the Joint Program in Communication and Culture American, and comparative studies . The Robarts Centre and its work on the Canadian Internet Project . The Centre also provides supervised research and writing opportun- also housed the Toronto offices of the Great Unsolved ities for graduate students from a wide range of York Mysteries in Canadian History Tom Thomson project . n graduate programs . www.yorku.ca/robarts

8 Canada Watch • Spring 2011 He’s still here

been slipstreaming the rise of the Tea The Gift By Seth Feldman even years ago, when Canada Watch Party. The well-funded and staged reac- Seth Feldman is a professor in tion to Obama has not entirely put 2008 published “The Chrétien Era: A Red the Film Department and former S down the memory hole, but it has pro- Book Audit,” a special issue on the leg- director of the Robarts Centre for acy of Jean Chrétien, it was hard to Canadian Studies at York University. vided an ongoing legitimacy to the zeit- imagine that we would be repeating the geist that very nearly bankrupted the exercise with an issue on Stephen industrial world and left us with Sarah Harper. Harper was, after all, an anom- Perhaps the real Palin. aly in Canadian politics: a man with an overriding ideology and a determination tragedy of Harper’s Canada’s Lucky Fortune to enforce that ideology upon a country reign can be Like the Tea Party, Harper rides the wave with little sympathy for it. of a demographic relatively unaffected As a vocal libertarian, he was by def- measured in lost by the great recession. That Canada was inition an outsider. Canada, in contrast, spared the worst of the recession is is a country that usually requires its lead- opportunity costs. perhaps Martin’s third and most signifi- ers to pay their party dues or at least to cant gift to Harper. The barriers Martin demonstrate some interest in public While even the erected between Canadian and Amer- administration. Even Pierre Trudeau had Americans talk about ican banks, supplemented by some good to fight his way through Parliament and sense on the part of Canadian bankers the Liberal Party before getting the keys high-speed rail, we themselves, have made it possible for to the Prime Minister’s Office. Harper to govern one of the few G20 In contrast, the Canadian right had keep chugging along countries where newly impoverished simply handed Harper the leadership. citizens are not taking their frustrations The Alliance/Reform/Conservative on 19th-century out on their national governments. opposition had become so hopelessly There have been other strokes of divided and ineffectual that there was railroads. good fortune, enough to make one nothing to lose by entrusting an outsider believe that a party full of creationists with its fate. These were people who had can indeed get some heavenly consider- at one moment, accidentally, or not, regard itself as CRAP in need of a desper- ation for its leader. The unchecked named themselves the Canadian Reform ate fix. Meanwhile, thanks to our system growth of the oil sands has made his Alliance Party. Who was CRAP to object of anti-proportional representation, the Alberta base rich, confident, and hungry if a bright and articulate guy wanted to Bloc makes a majority government dif- for power. Conversely, the damage the ignore its self-derision and take it to ficult for any party. The NDP and Green recession has caused to the Ontario victory? Parties, whose combined popular sup- economy has humbled and angered a Harper’s election victory was less his port now equals that of the Liberals, are third of the Canadian electorate, putting doing than Prime Minister Paul Martin’s. forever prevented from translating that their once predominantly Liberal loyal- Martin’s coup was a twofold miracle. He support into clout. ties up for grabs. had dethroned the most popular prime Harper has had other allies as well. minister in modern times. In so doing, At the beginning of his reign, he was Lost Opportunities he had also split a party that believed in gifted with a like-minded administration Perhaps the real tragedy of Harper’s nothing so much as remaining, at all in Washington. Even after 2008’s eco- reign can be measured in lost opportun- costs, united. nomic and political tsunamis in the ity costs. While even the Americans talk United States, he had another made-in- about high-speed rail, we keep chugging Liberals Down and Out America ace up his sleeve. Having along on 19th-century railroads. As It has been five years since Harper took cashed their bailout cheques, the Amer- Obama, in the face of enormous opposi- office and the Liberal Party has still not ican elite were not going to allow this tion, finds the money for an improved fully recovered from that division. It has “hope and change” business to go too health system, Harper is busy buying a no “A” list in its upper echelons and its far—or anywhere at all. new generation of jet fighters for an air “B” list leaders are barely coping. Worse For the last two years, when he should force that has not fought a dogfight in the still, it is stalled in a kind of limbo: too have been seen as out of step with the last 60 years. weak to take power and too strong to Obama revolution, Harper has instead He’s still here, page 10

Canada Watch • Spring 2011 9 He’s still here continued from page 9 Harper was appealing to the elector- ate’s fear of a non-existent crime wave Canada under Harper has become an when Egyptians were appealing to West- environmental menace and enthusiastic ern leaders for support. Would it have been so difficult for him to give them participant in America’s state of permanent encouragement or, at least, to distance himself from President Hosni Mubarak’s warfare. “Social justice” is devolving from take on governance? Or put another way, could Stephen Harper support democ- an ideal to a half-remembered abstraction. racy with a straight face? It does not seem that way. A colour- strength is focused, arrogant, and unfor- less introvert, he has cultivated the image Welcome to the Long War giving. of a man who is smart enough to provide Canada under Harper has become an So here we are at the end of year five. sound management so long as you do environmental menace and enthusiastic The unlikely Mr. Harper, at the helm of not ask him how. Michael Bliss has participant in America’s state of perma- a minority government, has redefined compared him to MacKenzie King, the nent warfare. “Social justice” is devolving both sides of the parliamentary aisle as one-man show of a prime minister no from an ideal to a half-remembered increasingly marginal irritants in his run- one knew or liked, but at the same time, abstraction. The census has been ning of the country. His bullying of the the politician no one could dump. tweaked to discourage bad news. In wars other parties has made them into a truly on the deficit, all the wrong belts get loyal opposition. The “Big Man” as tightened. Harper has pacified the Senate he Primo Leader In five years, Stephen Harper has once promised to reform. He has com- The dark side of Harper’s image is the gone from an accident of history to an promised and when possible eliminated authoritarian, the man who has con- embodiment of his era, a time when the concept of “arm’s length” in the civil tinued to work as if he were still moulding power is managed like and equated to service. And in what we hope are sops CRAP into gold. CRAP is seldom asked the daily news cycle. Ruling one hundred to his right-wing base, he has reminded for its opinion of the process and Harper years after Wilfrid Laurier, he is less us that none of the social reforms treats his caucus accordingly. He has concerned about the century belonging enacted in the last hundred years are been merciless to those who make the to Canada than he is about Canada immune from repeal. party appear foolish or corrupt. The belonging to him. resentful and disloyal have been cow- ered into a very low profile. As befitting a libertarian, he has more Canada Watch The Harper Governance or less the same opinion of Parliament Revolution: Taking Minority and of government as a whole as he has Issues 2011 Government to Its Limit of his caucus. Chrétien was also accused A Remarkable Turning Point: of dictatorial practices. However, while Chrétien wheeled and dealt, punished Post-neoliberal Latin America 2010 and rewarded, Harper has been more and the Shadow of Obama inclined to fire and prorogue. Canadian Multiculturalism It is a reasonable fear that, given a and Its Discontents: Where

majority, he would extend his disdain for 2009 Do We Go from Here? the democratic process to encompass an equally virulent disdain of the elector- Mr. O Goes to Washington: ate. No Canadian deserves to be treated The Bigger Than Big Agenda like a Tory backbencher. Yet this may be 2009 our fate. Deep Integration Post-Bush The Uber Political Honcho 2008 Here too, though, Harper has been lucky. For earlier issues, visit A world in hard times looks for strong www.yorku.ca/robarts leadership, and we have been taught that

10 Canada Watch • Spring 2011 Fiscal Conservatism and Harper’s Rescue of the Economy The Harper revolution: Fiscal conservatism—Yes, no, maybe he 2011 budget will likely only be sion to Keynesian economics by virtue By C. Scott Clark Tremembered as an excuse to call an and Peter Devries of being a member of the G20 and by election, because of a 1.5 percentage outdoing every other country in the point reduction in the corporate tax rate; C. Scott Clark was associate deputy amount of stimulus provided. minister of finance from 1994 to 1997 a trivial economic reason but, for some, and deputy minister of finance The real issue going forward is an important political reason. from 1997 to 2000. whether the Harper government regards If there is an election, there will likely Peter Devries was the director of the deficit as a serious problem that be little debate over the fiscal policy the fiscal policy in the Department of requires significant cuts to government government has been following since it Finance from 1990 to 2005. programs and/or revenue increases to was first elected in 2006. The reason is eliminate it. The answer is, it does not. that it is very difficult to identify a clear The Harper This was clear in the 2010 budget, where set of fiscal principles that the Conserva- the government showed a small surplus tive government has been pursuing. government inherited five years out, based largely on economic Instead, the government has adopted a growth, as the spending reductions version of the old adage, “Believe what I a surplus of over announced were largely not credible. say and ignore what I do.” The government has rejected the $13 billion in 2006 – 7. analysis of the Parliamentary Budget Is Harper a Fiscal Conservative? By 2008 – 9, the Office (PBO), the International Monetary In Words Only Fund (IMF), and others, that the deficit If by a fiscal conservative one means a government recorded includes a significant structural compon- person who wants to reduce the size of ent that will not be eliminated without government through less government a deficit of almost significant expenditure cuts and/or rev- spending, lower taxes, balanced bud- enue increases. Recently, the PBO gets, and lower debt burdens, then Ste- $6 billion thanks to released an update of its fiscal projec- phen Harper is clearly not a fiscal con- tions, which showed a structural deficit servative. Strangely enough, the only cutting the GST by of $10 billion in 2015 – 16. Normally, one prime minister that comes closest to two points. would hope that a fiscally conservative meeting this definition is Jean Chrétien government would not hesitate to take from 1993 to 2001. tough actions to eliminate a structural The only policy action that Harper has eliminating the deficit and running deficit. This government, on the other implemented consistent with being a fis- ongoing surpluses. During the 2008 elec- hand, has rejected the existence of a cal conservative has been to lower taxes. tion, Harper stated categorically that his structural deficit, without any analysis, The other essential elements of the def- government would never record a deficit, and intends to rely on attrition of public inition have been completely ignored. and the economy would not go into a sector employees to reduce government Program expenses have increased sig- recession. The Minister of Finance, in costs, and on economic growth to elim- nificantly, surpluses have been elimin- his November 2008 economic and fiscal inate the deficit. ated, and the deficit has reached record update, produced a fiscal forecast show- Equally problematic is the refusal of levels in absolute terms, with accompany- ing surpluses as far as the eye could see. the government to acknowledge the ing increases in the debt. The target of Well, the rest is history, as the saying growing fiscal imbalance that will reducing the debt-to-GDP ratio by goes. The Harper government inherited emerge in the second half of the decade 2012 – 13 has been pushed beyond the a surplus of over $13 billion in 2006 – 7. from the impact of the ageing popula- current five-year planning track. By 2008 – 9, the government recorded a tion on increasing government spending deficit of almost $6 billion thanks to cut- and reducing potential economic Di o Def cits Matter to ting the GST by two points. By 2009 – 10, growth. The February 2011 report of the Harper? Not Really the deficit reached $55.6 billion, in part PBO sets out the fiscal implications of If you listen to Harper’s rhetoric, then because of the recession, but also in part these developments. deficits matter and he is committed to because of Harper’s temporary conver- The Harper revolution, page 12

Canada Watch • Spring 2011 11 The Harper revolution continued from page 11 D oes HarPER Favour Lower To date, the Harper government has not made Taxes? Absolutely Clearly, this is the one area where Harper any tough expenditure decisions to assist in the has fulfilled his Conservative principles. What Harper will be remembered most elimination of the deficit. It seems unwilling to for will be the two-point reduction in the GST, which pretty much wiped out the accept that there is a structural deficit problem. surpluses the government inherited and which is primarily responsible for the structural deficit we have today. Income program spending to no more than the to authorize any payments after that date. taxes were reduced not by cutting middle growth in population and inflation. Although originally stating that trans- rates but by providing targeted “bou- Prior to the 2010 budget, the Harper fers to provinces would be protected, the tique” tax preferences, such as those to government said that it would not cut Harper government is now indicating assist the participation of young people major transfers to the provinces or to that the provinces should not count on in sports. The personal income tax sys- persons. Recently, it has said that spend- these transfers. In previous budget docu- tem is now littered with special tax ing on research and health would also ments, the government has emphasized preferences. With regard to corporate be protected. It has, therefore, excluded the need to clarify the roles and respon- tax cuts, the Harper government more than half of program spending sibilities between federal and provincial extended the plan initially implemented from cuts to eliminate the deficit, leaving governments. This statement suggests by the Liberal government in 2000. The it to rely primarily on cuts to direct spend- that the preferred option would be to cut result was that total tax revenues as a ing. In the 2010 budget, the growth of the growth of CHT and CST and “down- share of GDP fell from 16.3 percent in defence spending was cut and the level load” the problems of an ageing popula- 2006 – 7 to 14.3 percent in 2009 – 10. of spending on international assistance tion onto the provinces. It is unfortunate that Harper chose to was frozen. The operating budgets of This may not be very easy. A signifi- cut the GST. When the GST was imple- government departments were frozen for cant reduction in transfer payments to mented, it was always the intention to two years. The 2011 budget is expected the provinces would open up issues with shift the burden of taxation onto the GST to outline how the government intends respect to equalization and coordination and to lower the burden on personal and to find these latter savings. The govern- of federal – provincial tax policies. The corporate income tax. By doing so, this ment has indicated it will not be neces- provinces could not easily cope with a would favour savings and investment and sary to make major cuts to programs to major cut in transfer payments. economic growth. Harper has done the realize these savings. However, experi- There is of course an alternative, exact opposite. ence has demonstrated that across-the- which is simpler and less disruptive to Indeed, if Harper had not cut the GST board administrative savings are not federal – provincial relations. The federal by two points, the corporate income tax sustainable. government could simply restore the two could be cut further, while at the same To date, the Harper government has points to the GST. However, this would time the government could have suffi- not made any tough expenditure deci- violate one of Harper’s fundamental cient revenue to eliminate the structural sions to assist in the elimination of the conservative principles, which was not deficit that currently exists. deficit. It seems unwilling to accept that to increase taxes, regardless of how ill there is a structural deficit problem and advised from a fiscal and economic D oes HarPER Favour Lower unwilling to cut government expendi- perspective such a tax cut was. It would Spending? Not Really tures. mean a larger budget and larger role for Between 2006 – 7 and 2009 – 10, total the federal government in the economy. program spending increased by 13 per- Will Harper Become a Fiscal However, stranger things have hap- cent, rising from 13 percent to 16 percent Conservative? Perhaps pened in the past. “Believe what I say of GDP, largely because of the stimulus The next test of Harper’s fiscal conserva- and ignore what I do” is the dominating spending and cyclical factors. It is tive credentials (assuming that Harper is operating principle of the Harper govern- expected to fall back to about 13.5 per- still in power) will come in the 2012 or ment when it comes to fiscal policy. cent of GDP by 2015 – 16, but this means 2013 budget. The current legislation with The reality is that Harper has shown that the underlying growth in program respect to federal support under the Can- the kind of flexibility in applying fiscal spending is in line with the growth in ada Health Transfer (CHT) and Canada conservative principles that is needed to nominal GDP. In the 2006 election, Social Transfer (CST) expires on March stay in power. After all, that is what pol- Harper promised to keep the growth in 31, 2014. New legislation will be required itics is all about.

12 Canada Watch • Spring 2011 T he global meltdown: Fiscal stimulus and the structural deficit “Of course I believe in luck. How in the recent recession was relatively By Doug Peters otherwise to explain the success and Arthur Donner mild. Although Canada entered the of some people you detest?” recession slightly after the United States, Jean Cocteau, quoted in Look D oug Peters is the former chief Canada’s overall real GDP contraction economist of the Toronto-Dominion Bank “I am a great believer in luck, and former Secretary of State (Finance) during the recession was rather similar and I find the harder I work in the federal Liberal government. to the American decline. the more I have of it.” Arthur Donner is a Toronto-based economic As Phillip Cross points out in Statistics Stephen Leacock, Literary Lapses consultant and has been an adviser to both Canada’s May 2010 Economic Observer, federal and provincial governments. the most remarkable feature of Canada’s T he Global Meltdown downturn, which started in 2008, was its anada’s economy is recovering from Canada suffered speed, severity, and recovery time: Ca deep recession, which was • The duration of the commodity unavoidable because of the worldwide much less from job price slump between June 2008 and financial meltdown and a resulting February 2009 was relatively short— global downturn. Yet since 2008, when loss than the United eight months—markedly shorter the global downturn began, Canada’s States, and than in previous cycles. Nonethe- economy has fared much better than that less, the 50 percent drop in com- of other advanced industrialized coun- surprisingly, since the modity prices in the current cycle tries. In particular, Canada’s banks came was much deeper than in previous through the financial maelstrom rela- recession ended, the cycles. tively unscathed and our housing indus- • The recent output contraction was try experienced only a mild downturn. Canadian economy neither unusually long nor severe, As well, Canada’s job losses during has restored most of but the rate of decline was steep. the recession were nowhere as deep as • As for employment, Canada’s latest they were in the United States; indeed, the jobs that were lost. recession was much milder than the as of January 2011, Canada had replaced previous two Canadian downturns. all of the jobs that were lost in the reces- The global meltdown, page 14 sion. This is where politics and eco- Figure 1 GDP Corrections in the Last Recession nomic analysis intersect. Every politician enjoys taking credit when good things 102 Real GDP, 2008Q1 = 100, quarterly data. happen, but they also should take the Last observation: 2010Q1 blame when things go wrong. In June 2010, Stephen Harper and 100 basked in the limelight of Canada’s eco- nomic and fiscal performance during the 98 G8 and G20 meetings in Toronto. However, an objective assessment of 96

the evidence suggests that the Conserva- Index tive government had little or nothing to 94 do with the mildness of the recent reces- sion, the speed of the jobs recovery, or the success of Canada’s banking system. 92

Sin ce the Recession, the 90 Canadian Economy Runs Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Ahead of the United States 2008 2009 2010 The following chart illustrates that, on Canada United States Euro area Japan an international comparative basis, Can- Source: , Monetary Policy Report, chart 20, July 2010 (Statistics Canada, ada’s output (or real GDP) contraction U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Eurostat, and Japan Statistics Bureau).

Canada Watch • Spring 2011 13 The global meltdown continued from page 13 A Puzzle: Why Was Canada’s Employers in the United States remain Downturn Mild? What accounts for the rather mild nature understandably skittish. They will need to see of the Canadian output decline, particu- larly as compared with that of Japan and considerable evidence of positive developments the Euro area? Housing and financial institution stability in this country can on the housing and manufacturing fronts before account for much of the difference. they start hiring again in a meaningful way. Indeed, the 2008 – 9 recession in Canada never felt quite as bad as the American counterpart. Canada suffered much less The Bleak US Story over the past year. Had the US economy from job loss than the United States, and In contrast to Canada’s relatively mild created jobs at the same pace, it would surprisingly, since the recession ended, jobs recession and strong jobs recovery, have generated 3.3 million jobs, instead the Canadian economy has restored over the past several years the US job of less than a million.) most of the jobs that were lost. market has deteriorated in ways not seen Moreover, despite the fact that the job Canada’s last employment peak was since the Great Depression. Indeed, market started to grow again in the in October 2008. The recovery, which in since the beginning of the US recession United States, the American unemploy- output terms began in the middle of in December 2007 and its lowest level in ment rate has been falling (9 percent in 2009, has now replaced all of the lost January 2010, the US economy had shed January 2010) because of declining jobs. Indeed, as the following two labour some 8.7 million jobs, roughly equal to labour force participation, but when you market charts illustrate, between July the net job gains over the previous nine look behind the numbers you can see 2009 and January 2011 (the economic years. In addition, over the past year the the real problem. There are fewer people recovery phase), the Canadian economy US economy, despite the massive stimu- in the US workforce today than before has added 534,000 jobs, including lative policies at work, regained less than the recession began. There simply are 106,000 jobs in the three months ending a million of the lost jobs. In other words, too few job vacancies relative to the January 2011. Because of the job market total payroll employment in the United unemployed and underemployed who recovery, the Canadian unemployment States was still some 7.7 million lower in are seeking new jobs. rate was 7.8 percent in January, though January 2011 than at the previous peak Indeed, the US labour force shrunk it was as low as 7.6 percent in November in December 2007. (Interestingly, the by 750,000 between the peak in 2007 and and December. Canadian economy created 327,000 jobs January 2011. While the monthly labour

Figure 2 Canadian Employment and Unemployment

Employment Unemployment rate 17.4 9.0

8.5 17.2 8.0

7.5 17.0

Millions 7.0 Percentage

6.5 16.8

6.0

16.6 5.5 2008 2009 2010 2008 2009 2010 January 2011 January 2011 Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, January 2011.

14 Canada Watch • Spring 2011 force change numbers are quite erratic, it turns out that in the past two months Finally, after the “two-month holiday,” the actual shrinkage of the labour force the Conservative government got its act was roughly three-quarters of a million people. Employers in the United States together and realized that a second remain understandably skittish. They will need to see considerable evidence of Great Depression might be in the offing. positive developments on the housing and manufacturing fronts before they start hiring again in a meaningful way. lacked the vast amount of incentives that Dumb Luck or Problems As a result, to date the United States the United States had for home owner- for the Future is experiencing close to a jobless recov- ship—in particular, the income tax We have tried to show that the Harper ery—that is, an upturn in economic deductibility of mortgage interest. In government has been very lucky in that activity and good growth in corporate addition, Canada was fortunate in not Canada’s economy and its job market profits accompanied by an absence of having the excess of subprime mortgage outperformed those of other G8 coun- job creation. lending that occurred in the United tries, both in the recession and since the States. And Canadian banks, the major recovery began. However, despite this From One Great Recession players in the mortgage market in Can- relative good luck, the federal govern- to the Next—From One ada, tended to hold rather than securitize ment has made some bad policy moves Conservative Government mortgages and thus were much more that have created problems for the future. to the Next careful in their lending. This more bal- The great recession of 2008 – 9 has left It is interesting to contrast the perform- anced economy allowed Canada’s Canada with a legacy of large budget ance of the Canadian economy under unemployment rate in 2007 to fall to its deficits and rising debt. In its March 2010 the last two Tory governments that faced lowest level in some 25 years. budget, the Harper government pro- hard times. Canada did not fare as well jected a $49 billion budget deficit for in the great recession of 1989 – 92 as in The Fiasco of the fiscal 2010 – 11 after implementing year the recent recession. The federal fiscal Conservative’s November two of its economic stimulus package, deficit reached a record level of $44 bil- 2008 Economic Statement down slightly from the 2009 – 10 budget lion and the debt-to-GDP ratio was At a time when it was obvious that a estimate of $54 billion. In the next three exceedingly high, as was the unemploy- recession was under way in the United years, the fiscal deficit is projected to ment rate, when the previous Conserva- States, the Conservatives presented no decline to $28 billion, $18 billion, and $9 tive government was voted out of office plans for keeping Canada out of a major billion. The budget in 2014 – 15, under the in October 1993. recession. The 2008 economic statement Conservative’s doubtful scenario, is The first problem for the new Liberal turned out to be totally unrealistic and nearly balanced, as the deficit declines government headed by Jean Chrétien resulted in the near defeat of the just- to a tiny $2 billion. was to reduce unemployment and then elected Conservative minority govern- Generating this declining deficit path to face the reality of the fiscal and budget ment. With the prorogation of Parliament will be difficult if not impossible without problems. Over the next four years, the for two months starting in December raising taxes. The federal government budget system was repaired and the fiscal 2008, Canada did not respond to the has indicated that it will neither raise deficit eliminated. For a decade, Canada’s widening economic and financial fiasco taxes nor cut any transfer payments relat- federal government ran yearly fiscal that was spreading into a worldwide ing to health care, education, and pen- surpluses so that going into the next great great recession. sioners. Instead, program spending recession ($1.1 billion, 2008 – 9) Canada’s Finally, after the “two-month holiday,” within government departments will be debt-to-GDP ratio was markedly reduced the Conservative government got its act frozen. That means that any wage and was lower than other G7 countries. together and realized that a second Great increases for civil servants, set at 1.5 The economic expansion that Depression might be in the offing. A new percent this year, will have to be paid out occurred prior to the recent or second expansionary budget was presented to of existing budgets. Through targeted great recession was far more balanced Parliament on January 27, 2009. The spending restrictions, the budget proj- in Canada than in other countries. The budget projected a fiscal deficit of ects that the government can save $17.6 housing sector in particular did not $33.7 billion rather than the proposed billion over five years and the details of experience the excesses that were evi- surplus that the economic statement had these restrictions are either sketchy or dent in the United States and Europe. presented just two months earlier. The unknown. The reason for this is that our mortgage deficit for 2009 – 10 later ballooned to system differed substantially. Canada about $54 billion. The global meltdown, page 17

Canada Watch • Spring 2011 15 Ha rper: THE Unlikely Constitutional Revolutionary and the Battle Against Prorogation Prorogation—Prime ministers must not become kings whether the governor general reserves From Henry VIII to By Peter H. Russell Stephen Harper any discretionary power in exercising Peter H. Russell is University the power to prorogue Parliament. lthough Peter Mansbridge may still Professor Emeritus, Political Science In Canada’s system of parliamentary Ahave trouble pronouncing it, and at the . many Canadians may not be able to spell government, as it has evolved over a it, “prorogation” has become a new word century and a half, constitutional con- in the political lexicon of virtually all A prime minister vention requires that the governor gen- Canadians. For many, “prorogation” may who can shut down eral normally exercise the legal powers be a new word, even though it refers to vested in the Crown, on the advice of a practice dating back to the reign of King Parliament at any ministers responsible to parliament. Henry VIII, who invented “prorogation” However, there is a strong case for argu- as a way of sending Parliament away time would be ing that, in certain exceptional circum- without dissolving it. stances, the Governor General, as the In modern times, prorogation is used a modern version of representative of the Crown, must hold in reserve a discretionary power to to break up parliaments expected to last an absolute monarch. three years or more into sessions. Parlia- refuse a prime minister’s advice. The ment is prorogued when most of a ses- This would be principle governing the use of such a sion’s work is done, and there is a rec- reserve power of the Crown is that its ognized need for a seasonal break and disturbing even if the use is necessary to prevent the under- for a new session of Parliament to begin mining of responsible parliamentary after the break, with a Speech from the prime minister’s party government. Throne setting out a new government If the governor general’s role in pro- legislative agenda. The word is unfamil- had a majority in the rogation is reduced to that of a clerk iar to most Canadians and indeed to House of Commons. without any discretion to refuse a prime most citizens in other Westminster par- minister’s “advice,” then we move very liamentary countries because its normal close to a system of prime ministerial use is routine and uncontroversial. The December 2008 prorogation rather than parliamentary government. The prorogations of the Parliament of enabled the Harper government to avoid A prime minister who can shut down Canada in 2008 and 2009 were far from a scheduled vote of non-confidence, Parliament at any time would be a mod- routine. Indeed, it is as if the prime min- which there was every reason to believe ern version of an absolute monarch. This ister returned to the ways of prorogation’s would carry. The 2009 prorogation was would be disturbing even if the prime royal inventor and used prorogation to to avoid the scrutiny of a House Commit- minister’s party had a majority in the send away a Parliament that had become tee inquiring into the handling of Afghan House of Commons. However, when the too pesky. The first came just two weeks detainees. government lacks a majority in the after the opening of Parliament following House of Commons and its licence to the October 2008 election. The second The Constitutional Issues govern depends on commanding the came over a year into the session but Under the Canadian Constitution and all confidence of the elected chamber of with much of the government’s legislative of those based on the Westminster Parliament, giving the prime minister a agenda, including crime bills that the model, the power to prorogue Parliament blank cheque to close down Parliament government claimed were urgently along with the power to summon and would seem incompatible with parlia- needed, still before Parliament. In both dissolve Parliament rests with the Crown. mentary democracy. cases, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s King George VI’s 1947 letters patent aim in advising Governor General made it clear that in Canada the governor Small Reserve of Power Michaëlle Jean to prorogue parliament general will exercise these Crown pow- Constitutional experts agree that the was to avoid the government’s account- ers. Constitutionally, the controversy governor general reserves the power to ability to Parliament. over prorogation raises the issue of reject a prime minister’s advice to pro-

16 Canada Watch • Spring 2011 rogue Parliament. In December 2008, however, they were divided on whether, It is the height of irresponsibility on the part in the circumstances that prevailed at the of our parliamentary leaders to make time, the reserve power should have been exercised. For some, those circum- no concerted attempt to resolve differences stances—the fear that a refusal would plunge Canada into a huge political crisis over fundamental constitutional conventions just when it was in the midst of an eco- nomic crisis, and the faith that, in the of parliamentary democracy. meantime, Harper would work with the official opposition on a new budgetary tion of an election that was expected the opposition parties are at odds over approach to the fiscal crisis—argued in to—and did—produce a “hung parlia- whether the governor general must favour of granting the prorogation. ment.” The draft manual was submitted accede to the “advice” of a prime minis- On the other side were those who to a select committee of Parliament in ter to dissolve Parliament when the gov- believed as a matter of principle that eva- February 2010. This process resulted in ernment is defeated on a confidence sion of a vote of non-confidence called a public commitment of all parties to vote shortly after an election. They are for rejection of the prime minister’s agree upon practices that ensure that the also at odds over the legitimacy of an advice, regardless of any adverse prac- Queen will not be forced to take sides in incumbent government being replaced tical consequences. The constitutional a partisan controversy. by a coalition not approved in advance case for rejecting prime ministerial advice It is the height of irresponsibility on by the electorate. These are not small in December 2009 may have been less the part of our parliamentary leaders to questions and they are very likely to arise compelling. Nevertheless, this proroga- make no concerted attempt to resolve if the next election produces another tion aroused a great deal of disapproval differences over fundamental constitu- hung Parliament. at the level of public opinion and is cred- tional conventions of parliamentary Failure to deal with this matter, and ited with costing the Harper Conserva- democracy. Prorogation is by no means deal with it soon, will make Canada the tives 10 to 12 points of popular support. the only matter on which consensus is laughing stock of the parliamentary world lacking. The 2008 parliamentary crisis and move our country back to a monar- Lack of Consensus indicated that Prime Minister Harper and chy—the Kingdom of Stephen. on the Rules On March 17, 2010, the House of Com- mons passed a motion, moved by NDP The global meltdown continued from page 15 leader Jack Layton, requiring that the prime minister seek the consent of the A Larger Deficit But there will be no budget balance with- House of Commons before advising a Than Admitted out severe cutbacks in program spending prorogation of more than seven days. The government projects Canadian real unless taxes are increased—which the The Layton motion, because the Conser- GDP growth to average 3 percent annu- Conservatives say they will never do. vatives opposed it, lacks the political ally for 2011 through 2013, which, on the consensus needed for a binding consti- face of it, seems a reasonable assump- Getting the tutional convention. Constitutional con- tion. The Parliamentary Budget Officer, Priorities Wrong ventions are the rules of behaviour however, has concluded that even this After admonishing the other leaders at accepted as obligatory by all those con- kind of normal growth would leave a the G20 and G8 summits to reduce defi- cerned in the working of the Constitu- significant budget deficit in the fiscal cits and lower expenses, the Conserva- tion. Without such a consensus, the books. One of the most important rea- tive government announced that Canada governor general is put in the position of sons for these continuing deficits is the would spend $9 to $16 billion or more refereeing a game in which the players reduction in the GST rate from 7 percent on unneeded new fighter jets. One really do not agree on the rules. to 5 percent in 2007 and 2008. These tax wonders what the leaders of the other It is high time that Canada’s parlia- cuts occurred at the peak of the last G20 countries, which in many cases mentarians took a leaf out of New Zea- boom and, of course, have already were reducing social expenditures, land’s book and codified key constitu- resulted in significant revenue losses, would think of Canada’s ludicrous tional conventions in something like that roughly $10 billion annually. expenditure on military aircraft at a time country’s Cabinet Manual. In the United The Harper government is now wres- of retrenchment in their economies. Kingdom, then Prime Minister Gordon tling with a structural budget deficit of It is an easy prediction that the Con- Brown asked the Cabinet Secretary to roughly 1 percent of potential GDP in five servatives’ budget numbers will be carry out such a codification, in anticipa- years—still low by many global standards. drastically revised over time.

Canada Watch • Spring 2011 17 Constitutional rule bending: When angry citizens push back and fight for democracy denying the importance of the latter. Prorogation and By Christian Nadeau Contestation These actions may go against the Christian Nadeau is a professor in the n British-style parliamentary regimes, spirit of conservatism, but they are com- Department of Philosophy at the Université pletely coherent when considered with Iprorogation is a mechanism that allows de Montréal. His most recent book, the government to suspend the work of Rogue in Power: Why Stephen Harper Is the other “revolutionary” actions of the deputies. This measure is deemed Remaking Canada by Stealth, is published Harper government. Harper’s govern- acceptable if the legislative program of by James Lorimer and Company (2011). ment has not hesitated, between 2006 the government is mostly finished, which and the present, to slowly yet perma- is obviously a very rare occurrence. Numerous nently alter the manner in which Canad- It is a special measure, to be used with ian institutions have been framed and circumspection and in keeping with the organizations … legitimated. In addition to its pragmatic reasons for which it was originally insti- curtailment of institutional autonomy, the tuted. It seems obvious that the Harper united under the aegis Prime Minister’s Office has also gradu- government acted contrary to these ally eroded the symbolic authority of our provisions. In 2009, for example, the of the Voice Coalition democracy. Harper government used prorogation to sign a public In late January 2010, important meet- while 37 laws out of the 64 that were ings took place in about 60 cities across slated for study had yet to be examined. declaration Canada. Large protest marches were In addition to this dubious motivation, organized in order to oppose Harper’s the Harper government called for a very challenging the prorogation and to show that his govern- long prorogation as Parliament would ment’s actions had no support among not resume for at least six weeks. Harper government’s the citizenry. A number of organizations, Some journalists, and maybe a large sabotage of including Canadians Against Proroguing part of the government, seemed to think Parliament, mobilized in order to alert that Canadians did not care about pro- democratic institutions. fellow citizens and, most importantly, to rogation and that the issue was too counter political apathy, the main complicated. However, the weeks follow- weapon of an authoritarian government. ing prorogation in December 2009 received considerable media attention, Numerous organizations, such as showed them to be wrong. In fact, pro- and because of these initiatives proroga- Amnesty International Canada, the Can- rogation initiated a very important debate tion became a real issue for Canadians. adian Labour Congress, the Canadian and mobilized a very angry public Weinstock and the signatories insisted Federation of Students, Équiterre, against Harper and his friends. on the fact that the formal legitimacy of Independent Jewish Voices, the Climate prorogation was precisely the reason Action Network, and Kairos, united Getting Organized why it should be used with circumspec- under the aegis of the Voice Coalition to Early in January 2010, a group of political tion; this is also what the population at sign a public declaration challenging the scientists circulated a letter written by large understood to be at stake in the Harper government’s sabotage of demo- the non-partisan group Fair Vote Can- prime minister’s actions. cratic institutions. All of these actions ada, in which they condemned proroga- What is at stake, according to the show the remarkable force of civil soci- tion and demanded electoral reform. A petitioners, is the very capacity of elected ety, but there is still a lot of work to do. few days later, my colleague at the Uni- officials, as a whole, to deliver what they versité de Montréal, Daniel Weinstock, owe to the electorate. However, the ques- The Fragile Power instigated a second letter. The letter, tion becomes, how, during prorogation, of the People signed by over 200 university faculty can our elected officials be held respon- These actions clearly reveal people’s from a number of disciplines—political sible for decisions taken in their absence discontent, which, when followed by science, law, and philosophy—aimed by the executive? Further, it is incumbent resignation, suggests that a population similarly to condemn this political man- on the nature of the British system to ally evinces a self-protective reflex or a tem- oeuvre that, while being perfectly legal, the written law with customs, a fact that porary passivity, especially when it has is contrary to the very nature of Canadian Harper seems to have forgotten in been unscrupulously manipulated for democratic institutions. Weinstock modifying the value of the former while long periods. How to address this?

18 Canada Watch • Spring 2011 It seems to me that the problem lies In effect, prorogation works to dissolve in the paucity of institutional, non-gov- ernmental mechanisms that are able to the confidence and trust between the people provide a sounding board for public protest. Canada lacks a culture of public and their government by allowing the spaces, in the sense that Habermas and others use the term. We have no process government to function without those who whereby the exercise of reason allows members of civil society to have a certain were elected precisely to govern. amount of control over public affairs by holding those in power to account. These detriment of its subjects. Aristotle him- of bullying, and they hardly hide the fact big ideas, often relegated to the rather self showed how tyrants, with their dis- that they believe that they alone are able “mad dreams” of philosophers, are dain for the public good, were con- to govern well. essential to thinking through the democ- demned to fear reprisals from those racy deficit that we are currently facing. whom they repressed. They could not Why Should We Care Even though a large segment of civil hope to remain in power for long per- What They Do? society contested prorogation, a few iods. It is obvious that we cannot com- Well before the 2006 election, in a talk people—notably, the historian Michael pare the actions of the Harper govern- before the Civitas group (a right-wing Bliss—have pointed out that it will likely ment to those of the dictators that have think tank) in 2003, Harper clearly have a minor effect. The bills put on hold marked the history of the 20th century announced his true objectives. This text, will be restudied one day or another, and and the beginning of the 21st century. which too few have read, offers a glimpse the Special Committee on Afghanistan However, authoritarian leaders and into the most coherent version of Harper will inevitably continue its work. In other those who act with disdain for the insti- and his acolytes’ ideas. We might see words, it is “much ado about nothing.” tutions of government all have in com- this as a purely circumstantial text that The problem with this type of argument, mon the tendency to forget that which attempts to reorganize the political map however, is that it does not take into could one day lead to their downfall. in order to pave the way for a new Con- account two very important facts. Steven Harper’s careless oversight servative party. For my part, I remain First, regardless of the government’s with respect to prorogation is that it convinced that Harper believed what he motivations, Canadians pay a price when jeopardizes that which it was supposed said in 2003, and that he continues to important bills that address real social to protect, at least if it continues to be believe it. issues are delayed in passing. Ultimately, used for partisan ends, as it was in 2008 In the Civitas talk, Harper asserted the balance rests on whether this delay and 2009, rather than for legitimate or, that the real challenge facing the right is was worthwhile, something we should even technical reasons. In effect, proro- not, ultimately, the economy—given the be dubious of given the weak arguments gation works to dissolve the confidence fact that none of the parties really consid- offered by the government for suspend- and trust between the people and their ers itself socialist (by which he seems to ing parliamentary activities. Second, the government by allowing the government mean both socialism in the Soviet sense recourse to prorogation as a political tool to function without those who were and in the larger sense of policies asso- shows that the government has no prob- elected precisely to govern. ciated with the welfare state). The chal- lem running public affairs as if they were In this way, Harper denied his govern- lenge is the discourse of the left, which above the reach of Parliament and, thus, ment its principal source of authority. undermines the essential moral prior- above the representatives elected by the Following this action, he can no longer ities of society on the pretext of neutral- people. We could argue at length regard- count on his influence and will have to ity or even tolerance, and which leads to ing the merits and disadvantages of a rely on bullying. That is why it has a pernicious value relativism. For parliamentary democracy, but given that become necessary for him to thrust example, on Harper’s account, the oppo- we live in this type of system, the govern- aside the institutional constraints on the sition evinced by the left to the invasion ment cannot simply choose to modify its power of the executive. This is a vicious of Iraq decisively contradicts their rejec- logical functioning based on what bene- circle—recourse to bullying weakens tion of Saddam Hussein’s tyranny. If this fits it from one moment to the next. institutions, which then forces the gov- is not relativism, it is clearly, for the prime ernment to put forward excuses as to minister, a values impasse. Bullying and the why it is obliged to work without the gov- This text demonstrates what is at Autocratic Leader ernment and thereby to work increas- stake with prorogation and why it is The history of political ideas teaches us ingly outside the parameters of govern- important to fight against this type of that tyranny is defined as a government mental legitimacy. Harper’s Conserva- policy. What Harper challenges are the that looks after its own interests to the tives appear comfortable with this logic Constitutional rule bending, page 22

Canada Watch • Spring 2011 19 Constitutional reform by stealth: The creeping transformation of executive authority rime Minister Stephen Harper has While this misunderstanding was By David Schneiderman Paligned Canadian public policy most prevalent in Quebec, much of the closer to that of the United States in a David Schneiderman is a professor in vociferous opposition to the coalition the Faculty of Law at the University of number of areas such as foreign policy, emerged out of Alberta, where the Toronto, and founding editor in chief of the environment, and crime control. the Review of Constitutional Studies. Harper government had the full backing What perhaps is less apparent is the slow of the Calgary Herald and the Edmonton shift in the direction of US-style executive Journal. A review of the news and editor­ authority. In response to challenges issu- Between the time the ial pages of these two newspapers ing out of the House of Commons in the reveals that the government message last couple of years, Harper has been rumoured coalition came through loud and clear while more resisting the premise that the executive accurate assessments of the functioning is responsible to Parliament, despite its began to take form of the executive within parliamentary inveterate presence in the deep structure and the prorogation systems was absent in this critical per- of Canada’s constitutional order. He has iod. According to one dominant narra- preferred, instead, to mimic some of the of Parliament, there tive, which appeared to be the main least defensible aspects of US constitu- Conservative talking point, the change tional practice concerning executive was an intense week of government was likened to an branch independence. Even if there is a unprecedented coup d’état. There could semblance of a separation of powers of unprecedented be no change of government, it was said, doctrine present in Canadian constitu- debate across without a new election. tional law, it lacks the sharp edges of US A second dominant narrative emerg- constitutional practice. By aiming to set Canada. ing out of the newspaper accounts precedents that replicate dysfunctional lamented the loss of power by Alberta parts of the US constitutional system, within any new coalition cabinet, while Harper pushes us further into the Between the time the rumoured coalition a third narrative concerned patriotism— embrace of US-style limited government began to take form and the prorogation mostly having to do with the participa- where the executive operates as a sep- of Parliament, there was an intense week tion of the Bloc in the coalition. Prime arate check on legislative authority. of unprecedented debate across Canada. Minister Harper pushed the patriotism It was during this week that the prime button when he began his counterassault The First Prorogation: minister and his government promoted in Parliament, accusing the coalition of Impeding Coalition the notion that the Canadian prime min- a “betrayal” of the voters, the economy, Government ister operates as a separate executive and the best interests of the country. That Stephen Harper is intent on promot- branch and therefore, like the US presi- Typically, Harper would conjoin the ing the idea of a separate and segregated dent, is directly elected. Any change of patriotism theme with claims about lack executive branch becomes apparent on prime minister and government without of democratic legitimacy as he did in his an examination of the first prorogation a popular election, then, was constitu- nationwide address on the evening of crisis of December 2008. A Liberal – NDP tionally illegitimate. December 3, 2008—there was “no demo­ coalition, with assistance from the Bloc The prime minister had some success cratic right to impose a coalition,” he Québécois, was formed in response to in getting this message across. Immedi- declared. the provocative budget introduced by ately after the 2008 prorogation crisis Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, which, in passed, an Ipsos Reid poll commis- The Second Prorogation: addition to wildly misreading a global sioned by the Dominion Institute Complicity in Alleged Torture economic crisis already well under way, reported that 51 percent of respondents Events leading up to the second pro­ withdrew public financing for federal believed that the prime minister is dir- rogation in late December 2009 revealed political parties. Facing a parliamentary ectly elected, rather than appointed by a prime minister ready to defend claims vote of non-confidence, the prime min- the governor general. Only one-quarter regarding executive authority that echo ister advised Governor General Michaëlle of respondents were aware that Canada positions ordinarily issuing out of the Jean to prorogue Parliament, which she was a constitutional monarchy with the George W. Bush White House. The did, as per constitutional convention. Queen as its head of state. events precipitating the late 2009 proro-

20 Canada Watch • Spring 2011 gation concerned access to documents regarding the alleged torture of Afghan Nicholson, taking his cue from Kobernick, detainees that had been handed over to argued that the original opposition motion was Afghan security forces by the Canadian military in Afghanistan. The documents an unlawful extension of the legislative power had been the subject of Foreign Affairs Officer Richard Colvin’s testimony into the realm of executive authority, each of before the House of Commons Commit- tee inquiring into the treatment of which was sharply segregated from the other. Afghan detainees. Though the prime minister would have preferred to have us believe that he needed time to “reca- librate,” most Canadians understood in the Department of Justice, Carolyn ers. Concerning the separation of pow- that the Afghan detainee inquiry and the Kobernick, wrote to the Law Clerk and ers, she maintained, “[e]ach of the three government’s stubborn resistance to Parliamentary Counsel to the House of constitutional branches of government— handing over uncensored documents Commons, Rob Walsh, to explain the the executive, the legislative, and judicial to the House Committee precipitated government’s constitutional basis for branches—must respect the legitimate prorogation. refusing to disclose uncensored docu- sphere of action of the other branches.” Prorogation was prompted by the ments. Up to that day, the government If there was no strictly legal basis for House of Commons adoption of a side had been relying on a variety of refusing to comply with the production December 10 opposition motion calling statutes, such as the Canada Evidence of documents order, she argued that the on the government to produce those very Act, which it claimed legally barred the House of Commons and its committees uncensored documents. Unwilling to do government from releasing documents should instead respect fundamental so, the prime minister then asked the that might threaten national security principles like the separation of powers governor general to prorogue Parliament interests. In which case, as the prime and simply yield to the government’s and not have it reconvene until more minister and his ministers had advised superior authority in this matter. than two months later on March 2, 2010, the House, the government could only It is this alleged bedrock constitu- after the Vancouver Olympics. All would produce “legally available information.” tional principle that Justice Minister Rob be forgotten by then, the prime minister Nicholson invoked in the House of Com- must have assumed. However, what the The Battle for Disclosure mons on March 31, 2010. This critical prime minister was claiming for his office Unredacted documents simply were not speech was in response to the opposition was an unyielding independence from legally available. Acknowledging that motion pending before the Speaker of the House of Commons in which the there really was no statutory basis for the House, Peter Milliken, that there had “executive branch” held office separate refusing disclosure under the Canada been a breach of parliamentary privilege from the legislative branch. Evidence Act, Kobernick instead identi- following the House’s December 2009 This is most clearly suggested by the fied “several basic principles” in our motion to produce unredacted docu- legal manoeuvring by government and system of parliamentary democracy ments. Nicholson, taking his cue from justice department officials. The day “that must always be borne in mind.” Kobernick, argued that the original oppo- before the opposition parties were to These were, she wrote, the rule of law, sition motion was an unlawful extension vote on the contempt motion in Decem- parliamentary sovereignty, responsible of the legislative power into the realm of ber 2009, the Assistant Deputy Minister government, and the separation of pow- executive authority, each of which was sharply segregated from the other.

Tipping the Balance: Upholding Parliament Acknowledging that there really was Supreme In his much lauded ruling against the no statutory basis for refusing disclosure government on April 27, 2010, Speaker under the Canada Evidence Act, Kobernick Milliken disagreed with the minister that this was an unlawful extension of legis- instead identified “several basic principles” lative power. Yet he appeared to accept the minister’s troubling premise about in our system of parliamentary democracy the separation of powers. “It is the view

“that must always be borne in mind.” Constitutional reform by stealth, page 22

Canada Watch • Spring 2011 21 Constitutional reform by stealth continued from page 21 of the chair that accepting an uncon- undermine the ability of the legislative style constitutional politics. This is a ditional authority of the executive to branch to perform its checking function model of divided government where a censor the information provided to Par- of the executive branch or, in terms more powerful executive can legitimately resist liament,” declared Speaker Milliken, familiar to Westminster-style parlia- legislative initiative, where an elected “would in fact jeopardize the very sepa- ments, hold the government to account. upper house checks an equally legitim- ration of powers that is purported to lie ate lower house, and the governing party at the heart of our parliamentary system Separation of Powers changes place with the opposition party and the independence of its constituent Doctrine—US-Style Politics only after a national election. All of these parts.” Though he did not elaborate on The concern here is that, by accepting are innovations that Canadians perhaps this point, presumably the Speaker the separation of powers as foundational should be talking about, but that this meant to say that if he were to swallow to Canadian constitutional law, we are government prefers to do mostly by the minister’s argument whole, it would drifting further in the direction of US- stealth.

Constitutional rule bending continued from page 19 conditions that make social pluralism possible: conditions that are necessary What Harper challenges are the conditions for our liberal democracies (see Rogue in Power for a full analysis of this import- that make social pluralism possible: conditions ant text). that are necessary for our liberal democracies. It is crucial that we immunize our institutions against these types of excesses. Citizens must be regarded as participants on an equal footing in all as prorogation, which is authorized by acity to transmit and amplify its efforts decisions concerning the public sphere. the law, to prevent public debate. to protect the ideals associated with the This means that neither the elected Through effective use of the media and common good. However, no civil society representatives nor the government through political education and civic can do such work if the government should use political mechanisms such culture, civil society must assert its cap- stands opposed to it.

T he North American Center for Transborder Studies

he North American Center for Transborder Studies center with a trinational Board of Advisors, an ASU T(NACTS) promotes a safer, more prosperous, more Faculty Advisory Council, and partner institutions in competitive, more cooperative, and more sustainable Canada and Mexico . NACTS is supported by the North American region . College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and other offices Arizona State University (ASU) has a vision to be at ASU . a New American University, promoting excellence in NACTS focuses its research and policy on borders, its research and among its students and faculty, in- competitiveness, and the environment, working creasing access to its educational resources, and through events and initiatives that build public aware- working with communities toward social and eco- ness about North America . NACTS accomplishes its nomic development . mission by building key partnerships among northern All NACTS initiatives strive to embody the New and southern border specialists and identifying and American University design aspirations of global en- educating key constituencies in government, the pri- gagement, social embeddedness, and societal vate sector, and civil society . n transformation . NACTS is a university-wide research http://nacts.asu.edu

22 Canada Watch • Spring 2011 Global Retreat Full Speed Ahead Canada the middle power: Lost in translation As to the Middle East, while the gov- Canada on the Global By Paul Heinbecker Stage: A Troubling Record ernment maintained the basics of long- Paul Heinbecker is a Distinguished Fellow established Canadian policy, notably n the 2007 Speech from the Throne, at the Centre for International Governance support for the two-state solution, it Ithe Harper government claimed that Innovation, Waterloo, and director of “Canada [was] back as a credible player the Centre for Global Relations at Wilfrid changed the tone, style, and fulcrum on the international stage.” The speech Laurier University. He served as Canada’s point of Canada’s policy. From its first went on to say that “focus and action, ambassador to the days in office, the government uncriti- (2000 – 2003) and as Prime Minister rather than rhetoric and posturing, cally supported Israeli government pol- Mulroney’s foreign policy adviser. This icy, coming across as having little con- [were] restoring our influence in global article does not necessarily reflect the affairs.” Three years of “focus and action” views of the institutions above. cern for the suffering and the rights of later and we had lost the 2010 election to the Palestinians. While the government the United Nations Security Council, as portrayed itself as “principled,” with the reliable a barometer (nearly two-thirds Despite the tight prime minister characterizing the Israeli of the UN’s members are electoral onslaught in the 2006 war in Lebanon democracies) as there is of the world’s control of policy by that killed over 1,000 Lebanese, mostly appraisal of the foreign policy of the civilians according to Human Rights Harper government. What happened? the Prime Minister’s Watch, as “measured,” and blaming the Upon taking office, the Harper front Office, or perhaps UN for the Israeli bombing of a long- bench had had little exposure to, or evi- standing and well-marked UN observa- dent interest in, international affairs. It because of it, tion post in which a Canadian soldier did not trust the advice of Canada’s for- serving with the UN was killed, others eign policy bureaucracy, and tended to managing saw its positions otherwise. compensate for its own inexperience with ideology and to subordinate sub- relationships with Isr ael and Human Rights stance to communications. It stood on other countries has The government seemed to condone the its head the Trudeau definition of foreign Gaza war and echoed the Israelis’ dis- policy as the extension abroad of na- been a particular missal of Justice Richard Goldstone’s tional policies. Foreign policy became findings of Israeli (and Palestinian) the importation of international issues for failing of this breaches of international humanitarian domestic partisan advantage. Sensitive law. It did not raise concerns, as the matters, notably the Middle East, were government. Germans did, with the punitive Israeli made into wedge electoral issues, with blockade of Gaza, and seemed to readily scant concern for their implications for support the Israeli version of its military the public peace. This basic modus ope- Harper’s tenure, Canadian participation response to the Turkish aid flotilla. There randi has been accompanied by greatly in UN peacekeeping missions remained was also the shifting of numerous votes centralized decision making in the Prime at a low ebb—53rd among troop con- at the UN in favour of Israel; the imbro- Minister’s Office (PMO) and extremely tributors as of January 2010. Even count- glios over the Canadian NGOs Rights tight control over communications. ing our well-respected, highly effective, and Democracy and Kairos and the and very costly deployment to Afghani- funding of UN projects in Palestine; the Global Foot Dragging and stan, we scarcely ranked in the top 15 shabby mistreatment of Madam Justice Other Imbalances participants in UN-sanctioned or UN-led Louise Arbour on her retirement as UN With regard to policy, the government military operations. To the dismay of human rights commissioner; the tacit downplayed the UN, ostentatiously skip- many allies and of the many small island acceptance of Israeli Prime Minister ping the annual UN General Debate in states around the world, the government Netanyahu’s ending the moratorium on 2009, which was attended by about a dragged its feet on climate change, as its illegal settlement construction in the dozen of the prime minister’s G20 coun- predecessors had done, but established West Bank and Jerusalem; and the lag- terparts, including President Obama, for its own unilateral and less demanding ging endorsement of the democratic an eminently re-schedulable Tim Hor- target and timeframe, which it seems aspirations of 80 million Egyptians. ton’s announcement. In Prime Minister nonetheless unlikely to fulfill. Canada the middle power, page 24

Canada Watch • Spring 2011 23 Canada the middle power continued from page 23 Despite the tight control of policy by the Prime Minister’s Office, or perhaps The government’s record pales in comparison because of it, managing relationships … to that of, for example, Prime Minister with other countries has been a particu- lar failing of this government. It initially Mulroney, who … concluded a free trade downgraded relations with China, partly for human rights reasons but also out of agreement, an acid rain agreement, and an ideological antipathy. The prime minister delayed paying a return visit to China and Arctic passage agreement with Washington. famously skipped the Beijing Olympics, one of the few significant foreign leaders to do so. Other Mistakes and Although rebuilding has been disap- Miscalculations pointingly slow, the government has Punching Below Our Weight The government likewise mishandled an taken a leadership role in the longer-term With the state visit to Ottawa of President airline dispute with the United Arab Emir- effort to rebuild that country. Positive, as Hu Jintao on the eve of the G20 summit, ates (UAE), after we had been using one well, has been the Harper government’s the Chinese signalled that they were of their military airbases for nine years promoting of Canadian sovereignty in ready again for business-like relations, to transship soldiers and material to the Arctic and its work with the four other but little warmth has been evident. Don Afghanistan and to repatriate our Arctic coastal states to map the under- Campbell, former Canadian ambassador wounded soldiers to Canada, apparently water topography in order to facilitate a to Japan, has observed that Canada has at no charge. Moving to another base is negotiated outcome of overlapping lacked any coherent strategy in Asia. expected to cost hundreds of millions of claims, although the government’s Cold Kishore Mahbubani, a former Singapore dollars. The government’s decision to War – era rhetoric about Russian bomber ambassador to Canada and the UN, hold two summits in Canada, the G8 threats has been bizarre and discordant. asserted that Canada was one of the few summit in Huntsville and the G20 sum- The Harper government kept the countries that punched below its weight mit in Toronto, rang up a further, breath- Liberals’ promise to double aid to Africa internationally and questioned whether taking bill of about a billion dollars. (albeit from a lower base, and then froze Canada was becoming, consequently, the entire Canadian aid budget), and at the next Argentina. The government Some Successes Too the Huntsville G8 took the initiative to distressed Africans by the fact and man- All of this is not to say that the govern- establish a maternal and children’s ner of its downgrading of their continent ment’s performance has been without health fund (though its attempts to in our international aid priorities, even if its successes. A fair assessment of the exclude abortion services from fund it made remedial efforts to reframe the Harper government’s record must give it coverage sparked public criticism by policy more acceptably. Nor has the gov- credit for the effective way it has Secretary of State Clinton and a rebuke ernment made many inroads in its new employed Canada’s G20 membership to from the respected medical journal The priority in Latin America; indeed, Can- respond to the international financial Lancet, which called our policy “hypo- ada has been explicitly excluded, along crisis and consequent recession, using critical and unjust). Further, the govern- with the United States, from the nascent the exceptional expertise in the Depart- ment embarked on major free trade Community of Latin American and ment of Finance and Bank of Canada to negotiations with a number of countries, Caribbean States. promote sound G20 decisions. The gov- including India and the European Union, The Harper government’s clumsy ernment increased spending on Can- the latter a Canadian goal since the time imposition of visa requirements on ada’s military by over 40 percent, a of Trudeau. It has maintained a work- Mexicans in 2009 constitutes a case necessary correction that allowed the manlike if not warm relationship with study in the costs of mismanaging rela- Canadian Forces to take on more Washington, initiating talks on a com- tions with partners. The decision, which demanding roles. It steadily maintained mon security perimeter that, depending came with little warning and with inad- Canada’s efforts in Afghanistan and on the details, could help both sides. equate Canadian resources in Mexico to made a sensible and responsible com- meet the demand, infuriated the Mexican promise in shifting to a training mission Harper versus Mulroney’s authorities, inconvenienced scores of there. The government responded to the Foreign Policy Record thousands of Mexican travellers, and cost Haiti earthquake quickly, using the refur- The government’s record pales in com- the Canadian economy hundreds of mil- bished military to good, if expensive, parison, however, to that of, for example, lions of dollars in lost tourism revenues. effect. Canada the middle power, page 27

24 Canada Watch • Spring 2011 Our leader and the Obama charm: The good leader syndrome ’Cause nobody wants to do it on By Tim Kaposy Comparisons and Their Limits their own and Imre Szeman But if we stop at such surface tallies of And everyone wants to know the coolness of political leaders, or stick they’re not alone Tim Kaposy is a professor in with the comfort of imagining that Can- There’s somebody else that feels the Cultural Studies Program at the same somewhere George Mason University. ada is (by necessity) the better country There’s gotta be somebody for me Imre Szeman is a professor of despite its leadership (as Canadians are out there English and film studies and wont to do), we do not learn much about Canada Research Chair in Cultural —Nickelback, “Gotta Be Somebody” either figure, or about where our respect- Studies at the University of Alberta. ive systems stand today. It is useful to Better Country, Worse Leader? place Harper and Obama side by side, t seems so unfair. Despite being the Political comparison is not in order to pat ourselves on the back I“better” country in every way, they get because we are brave enough to admit the exciting and energetic guy, while we instructive when it a slight flaw in our otherwise pristine get the ultra-boring one. global image (i.e., we have a Harper!), The “we” and “they” are Canada and helps us to dig deep but because it can help us to see the very the United States, of course, and the real limits and problems of contempor- boring and exciting ones, Prime Minister into the structure that ary Canadian politics, of which Harper Stephen Harper and President Barack is more symptom than cause. Obama, respectively. One takes animates public life Political comparison is instructive ­impressive-looking jump shots and can and gives a nation’s when it helps us to dig deep into the talk his way around, and through, any- structure that animates public life and thing. The other tries to show his pop democracy its defining gives a nation’s democracy its defining culture smarts by playing tunes with characteristics. For example, John Bryan Adams and Nickelback at 24 Sus- characteristics. Ibbitson’s 2009 pamphlet Open and sex and tries his best to make sure that Shut: Why America Has Barack Obama, he and his Cabinet say as little as pos- and Canada Has Stephen Harper sible. If Obama’s long “aaaaaaaaand”s widely caricatured as a “vacuous oppor- engages in a comparison between prime during interviews signals someone tunism” (see Tariq Ali’s The Obama minister and president in order to better searching for the larger implications of Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War conceptualize the drastic ageing and his answer, Harper is largely content to Abroad) that has fostered insufficient centralization of the Canadian federal appear pre-digitized, curt as a good ole support from Democrats and venom government. For such a brief interven- Stephen Leacock joke, and cordoned off from opponents. tion, Ibbitson’s analysis is wide-ranging: from eyes and ears. There is no com- In Canada, Harper’s blockheaded the final chapter is devoted to a com- parison, especially when it comes to how demeanour has lingered longer enough parison of Ottawa and Washington, DC. each moves about on the international to make him appear “principled” and One prominent point he makes is that stage. impervious to the day-to-day incidents Canada’s “federal public service is noto- Of course, popular perception about of mass-media attention that comprises riously resistant to outside influences. whether a politician is suitable for office much of what passes for politics in North Short-term appointment of experts from can change in an instant—on a dime. America. If Harper does not disillusion outside the public service to senior pos- Expecting the same speed of service that Canadians, it is because they have itions in it, to advise on policy or to help they get at fast-food drive-thrus, Amer- always been indifferent to him. Still, one craft new programs, are discouraged. icans speedily grew disillusioned with imagines that Canucks might prefer the As a result, Canada lacks the sort of Obama when he failed to bring about a elegant Obama to the pudgy and stiff- public policy intellectuals who exercise US utopia within his first hundred days haired Harper, less because of any real so much influence within the U.S.” in office. Two years into his presidency, understanding of what positions and It is widely acknowledged that Harp- Obama’s knack for negotiating national policies each holds, than because one er’s years in government have brought a contradictions, evident in the way he expects (even in the age of Italian Prime chill to politics in Canada. But this is only addressed issues ranging from race to Minister Silvio Berlusconi) a certain due in part to his own style of maximiz- Iraq during the 2008 campaign, is today gravitas from one’s political leaders. Our leader and the Obama charm, page 26

Canada Watch • Spring 2011 25 Our leader and the Obama charm continued from page 25 ing control over information, which merely magnifies the limits of an inbred Both the Harper and Obama governments are bureaucratic system to which Ibbitson recalibrating their rhetoric after the pieties of draws our attention. Part of the intracta- bility of US policy stems from the whole- global integration, security, and the inherent sale refashioning of government that occurs with each election. Bureaucrats progress of “civilization” have worn thin. and partyhacks exchange keys in DC for condos in Capitol Hill and Georgetown that they expect to have for four years come increasingly to be the purview of while elsewhere, as in Australia (and, for only. Those deposed go off to lick their a single individual. The fact that it is pos- that matter, Egypt), the leaders have been wounds in the relative comfort of think sible for a single person to possess such reined in through electoral and political tanks and lobbying firms. By compari- power even in a minority government reform. The only disquiet we feel is when son, in Ottawa, one can safely get a only confirms the rot in the system. the great leader has a different outlook mortgage for a house in the Glebe and Much of the power of US presidents from our own, or seems not to have the expect to welcome one’s toddlers back comes from the media face time they get: wisdom or heart of other leaders around home from Queen’s or McGill with stor- they cannot pass bills or budgets on their the globe; generally, however, Canadians ies about their hijinks with the Young own, though they can exert moral and seem not to worry about the rapid Liberals or Conservatives. Politics is media suasion to help do so. By com- decline of democracy in the country over certainly much bigger than the milieus parison, a prime minister does not typ- the past several decades. accompanying party leaders, but to say ically have to lobby anyone for votes politics only happens beyond this milieu (neither publics nor the legislature) or The United States and and the governmental apparatus, with worry about mid-term elections. Harper Canada: Same Old, Same Old which it manoeuvres, has the effect of is talented at managing optics and con- What else can we learn by comparing deflecting attention away from political trolling the message—in ways that any our leaders? Commentators in the United antagonisms and tactics that originate in current leader has to be—but the issues States recently began to compare their the fixity of state power. that many blame his reign for are ones national experience with Canada’s, The control that one associates with that have long plagued Canadian politics. exploring the deep fissures between the Harper’s secrecy is in fact endemic to a The reality is that Canadians have two countries’ political processes. For system in which the executive and legis- become comfortable living with strong instance, Paul Krugman has compared lative branches of government have leaders and an ossified public service, national banking laws and Bill Moyers has compared health-care systems: in www.yorku.ca/drache/wto.php both cases, Canada comes out ahead, though less by design (as the US com- For more writing by mentators tend to imagine) than by his- Daniel Drache torical accident (Canadian banking law is hardly as enlightened as business leaders and their public relations person- nel want us to believe). On a policy-to- policy basis, there is a difference between Canada and the United States as much as between any two countries: no sur- prise there. What about in terms of their general world view? Recall the speech Lester B. Pearson delivered on April 2, 1965 at Philadelphia’s Temple University, urging Washington to cease its carpet bombing of Vietnam. The obstinacy of Pearson’s position roiled Lyndon Johnson. By com- parison, Harper’s subservience to the United States parallels Brian ­Mulroney’s

26 Canada Watch • Spring 2011 NAFTA-era doctrines. It would be incon- ceivable, for instance, for Harper to The surprise of the United States having a oppose Obama and the US military “good” leader in comparison to our Nickelback- industry by calling for an immediate end to drone bombing throughout the world. loving “bad” one might have the virtue of Indeed, much of the technology and expertise behind such weapons are opening our eyes to a bad system most of us produced on Canadian soil and are subsidized by taxpayers. Both the Harper not only tolerate, but mistakenly celebrate as and Obama governments are recalibrat- standing at some imagined democratic peak ing their rhetoric after the pieties of global integration, security, and the that is the envy of the rest of world. inherent progress of “civilization” have worn thin. What happens next will be laid at the feet of a Canadian public who have only tion has spurred responses to Harper Canada’s—one run by a changing maintained Harper’s authority because that are both flailing and concise. The sequence of oligarchs from roughly the he has meddled little with an already Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives same political class and with roughly the politically listless middle class who, (CCPA), for instance, has compiled The same class commitments and outlook. despite a declining standard of living Harper Record, a vital compendium that The surprise of the United States having with Harper in office, are satisfied to accounts for Harris-like changes a “good” leader in comparison to our embrace mass consumerism in place of intended for nearly every realm of daily Nickelback-loving “bad” one might have political activism. Harper’s lingering life, from child care to nuclear energy. the virtue of opening our eyes to a bad presence on Canada’s national stage The CCPA is challenging Harper’s system most of us not only tolerate, but should trigger a myriad of innovative attempt to remake Canada by economic mistakenly celebrate as standing at some alternatives to his oligarchy and to the restructuring and their message is clear: imagined democratic peak that is the Canadian political system as it is cur- even when we vote Harper out of office, envy of the rest of world. Otherwise, rently configured. Instead, in response the impact of his tenure will extend far comparing leaders is little more than a to the news that in February 2011 Harper beyond his term in the office of prime distraction from the realities of politics, unilaterally signed a border security and minister. which extend beyond the actions and information-sharing pact with the United It is not that Obama is better than directives of any single individual—or, if States, we hear muted alarm from the Harper. Instead, Harper is what you get they do not at present, they certainly op-eds and deafening silence from the when you have a political system like should. general public.

Let the Corporations Rule! Canada the middle power continued from page 24 A more telling comparison than Obama might be with a provincial leader from Prime Minister Mulroney, who, by this the recent past. During the “common stage in his tenure, had concluded a free Not all the sense revolution” in Ontario between trade agreement, an acid rain agree- responsibility for 1995 and 2002, Premier ment, and an Arctic passage agreement privatized virtually all public entities with Washington; had hosted the first Canada’s slipping available to his brokers. Harris demon- ever summit on climate change; and had ized hospitals, highways, the energy led the international effort to impose reputation can fairly sector, and universities as inefficient and sanctions on the apartheid regime in lacking the due oversight of experts. South Africa, among many other things. be laid at the Harper They were then sold off in varying Not all the responsibility for Canada’s government’s door. degrees to corporations. Harris, who slipping reputation can fairly be laid at now sits on the boards of a number of the Harper government’s door. The inter- these formerly public organizations, is est of Canadian governments in the ada was back. The claim is more aspira- accumulating millions. world has flagged with the budget cuts tional than factual. There is little that has Mulroney’s finances are only now and national unity crises of the 1990s. been strategic or imaginative in current being litigated over for these same kinds But it is the Harper government that policy and much that has been tactical, of transactions. This pattern of privatiza- claimed that, under its leadership, Can- unambitious, and disappointing.

Canada Watch • Spring 2011 27 Death by One Thousand Cuts: Neoliberalism’s Win – Lose Strategy Canada’s fractured political culture servatives in 2003, with Harper as the Majority Government Rule BY PHiliP RESniCk or well over a century, Canada was new Conservative leader. In the 2004 Philip Resnick is a professor of election, the Conservatives were able to Fa country with a very stable political political science at the tradition. There were two dominant par- University of British Columbia. offer a more effective challenge to the ties—the Conservatives and the Liber- Liberals, resulting in a minority Parlia- als—that between them easily garnered ment. A subsequent scandal involving 75 – 80 percent of the popular vote in Stephen Harper’s the funding of federal programs in Que- federal elections. Both were brokerage bec did much to undermine confidence parties, without hard and fast political Conservatives were in the minority Liberal government, principles. not the Progressive resulting in its defeat in the January 2006 Minority governments were not election. unheard of in Canada, but the norm was Conservatives of the The Conservatives only secured 36 majority governments. So why have Can- percent of the vote federally in the 2006 adians, through three successive elec- past. They had a election, depriving them of a parliamen- tions—2004, 2006, 2008—elected Parlia- tary majority. They tried mightily to ments without a majority government? harder edge to them, increase their popularity in the year and Why does the political party system with closer in many ways a half that followed, helped by the fact five major contenders today appear to that the Liberals had chosen an uncharis- be so fragmented when compared with to American matic leader. However, the October 2008 the not so distant past? election saw the Conservatives getting Republicans. 37 percent of the vote and being held The Roots of Minority once again to minority status. In this Government instance, the Bloc’s domination in Que- The key to the fragmentation of the party province. Moreover, in the five elections bec and attack on the Conservatives’ system lies in the constitutional debates that have followed, the Bloc has consist- cuts to cultural programs had much to that dominated the 1980s and 1990s. ently won a majority of Quebec’s House do with the electoral outcome. So did an Pierre Trudeau’s patriation of the Canad- of Commons seats and, with one excep- implicit unwillingness of the Canadian ian Constitution in 1981 – 82 was carried tion, a plurality though never an absolute electorate outside Quebec to trust them out against the strong opposition of the majority of Quebec’s votes. In other with a parliamentary majority, for fear of Parti Québécois government of Quebec words, since 1993, Canada has had a what they might do if so empowered. headed by René Lévesque. The Conser- binational party system. Outside Que- vative government of Brian Mulroney bec, the Liberals, the Conservatives, the Unity on the Right attempted to remedy this some years NDP, and the Greens are the key con- Stephen Harper’s Conservatives were later through the Meech Lake Accord, tenders today. Within Quebec, the Bloc not the Progressive Conservatives of the which among other things, recognized is the dominant party, with the others past. They had a harder edge to them, Quebec as constituting a distinct society competing for the remaining seats and closer in many ways to American Repub- within Canada. That clause provoked votes. licans. They contained within their ranks considerable opposition in the rest of a hard-line fundamentalist wing, with Canada, ultimately leading to the The Decline of the Once ultra-conservative views on abortion, Accord’s failure in 1990. Mighty Liberal Party homosexuality, and the family. They As a direct consequence of some of All this did not matter in the short run, sought closer alignment with the United these developments, Lucien Bouchard, since the Liberal Party under Jean Chré- States, to the detriment of a more multi- a leading minister in the Mulroney gov- tien was able to secure a parliamentary faceted Canadian foreign policy. In addi- ernment, resigned in 1990 and formed a majority between 1993 and 2004 by tion, they showed little concern for the new sovereignty-supporting party, the sweeping almost all of Ontario’s seats. environment, for Aboriginal issues, or Bloc Québécois. In the 1993 federal elec- Eventually, leading figures on the polit- for the more progressive facets of Can- tion, this party, which only contested ical right, most notably Stephen Harper, adian social policy. seats in Quebec, won 54 of the 75 seats were able to engineer a fusion of the Where they could, the government and 49 percent of the popular vote in that Canadian Alliance and Progressive Con- showed its true colours. It attempted to

28 Canada Watch • Spring 2011 repeal the Gun Registry Act, passed by The idea of coalition has not disappeared. a previous Liberal government, by put- ting enormous pressure on rural Liberal Although Ignatieff has ruled out any informal and NDP members of Parliament. It withdrew government support for events arrangement with the NDP or the Greens like gay pride parades, cut funding to prior to a future election, he has left the feminist and other social activist organ- izations, eviscerated the long form for door open to discussions afterward. the census, and gutted agencies like the International Center for Human Rights and Democratic Development, appoint- The political impasse has sparked within both the Liberal Party and the ing hard-line neo-conservatives to their debate on two fronts. The first has been NDP, calling for some coalition arrange- boards. In short, the government played about changing the electoral system to ment. The near certainty that the Liberals to their conservative base, while doing one more closely resembling propor- by themselves will be unable to secure a little to broaden its support to the two- tional representation. However, propos- majority of seats in the next election thirds of Canadians who did not share als along these lines, when put to elector- increases the prospects of such a coali- those values. ates in provinces like British Columbia tion as one possible future scenario. The inability of the Conservatives to and Ontario, have gone down to defeat. A lot would depend on the balance achieve a parliamentary majority is one Having failed at the provincial level, of forces at that point. Should the Liber- part of the story. The decline of the Liber- electoral reform at the federal level als and the NDP between them garner als to an all-time low of 26 percent of seems all the more improbable. more seats than the Conservatives, the popular support in the 2008 election is possibility of coalition would immedi- another. Why might this have occurred? Coalition Governments: ately arise. The recent formation of a There was the sponsorship scandal and Un-Canadian? coalition between Conservatives and the Gomery Inquiry of 2004 – 5, which A second idea that has garnered support Liberal Democrats in Great Britain revealed that key Liberal organizers in is that of the Liberals and the NDP form- strengthens the legitimacy of such an Quebec had used funds destined for ing a coalition government. There was a option for Canada, whose parliamentary federal promotion in Quebec to line their near turn to a coalition of this kind in system is modelled on the British. More- own pockets. There was a sense that the December 2008, shortly after the federal over, Australia has gone down a similar party had lost its moorings through a election of that year and the introduction road in recent months, with a minority succession of weak leaders—Paul Martin, of a highly polarizing fiscal update by the Labor government supported by a Green Stéphane Dion, and most recently Conservatives. In the heated debate that and several independent members of Michael Ignatieff. (Martin was seen as surrounded this event, the Conservatives Parliament. indecisive, Dion as wooden, and Ignati- denounced the proposed coalition as eff, who had spent decades abroad, as illegitimate, replacing the party that had How Long Will Minority out of touch with ordinary Canadians.) won a plurality of the votes with one that Governments Last: In addition, there was an incipient feeling had been soundly thrashed, in alliance A Long Time? that the Liberals had overplayed its hand with socialists and with Quebec separat- The new norm for Canada seems to be as Canada’s long-time governing party ists. In the event, the governor general a fragmented party system. Something and deserved a spell in opposition. accorded Stephen Harper a prorogation may come along to alter this, a political of Parliament. By the time Parliament crisis of one kind or another, firming up The Fragmentation of reconvened in late January, the Conser- support for one or the other of the Con- Electoral Politics vatives had substantially modified their servative or Liberal parties. An eventual Canada’s two historically dominant par- budget proposals, and the Liberals had redistribution of seats in the House of ties, the Conservatives and the Liberals, a new leader, Michael Ignatieff, who was Commons may increase representation together secured a little over 60 percent less supportive of the coalition idea than from the fastest-growing provinces— of the popular vote in 2008; 18 percent his immediate predecessor, Stéphane Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia— of the remainder went to the NDP; 10 Dion, had been. at the expense of slower-growing prov- percent to the Bloc Québécois; and 9 The idea of coalition has not disap- inces like Quebec, weakening the spoiler percent to the Greens. More recent pub- peared. Although Ignatieff has ruled out position of the Bloc Québécois. lic opinion polls show little change in the any informal arrangement with the NDP The Conservatives may yet make a situation, with neither the Conservatives or the Greens prior to a future election, major breakthrough in the outer suburbs nor the Liberals approaching majority he has left the door open to discussions of major cities and even in a number of government territory. afterward. There have been many voices, Canada’s fractured political culture, page 34

Canada Watch • Spring 2011 29 Manufactured ignorance: Harper, the census, social inequality ress toward the goal of citizenship equal- The Long-Form Census: By Janine Brodie An Unlikely Target ity and to hold our governments account- Janine Brodie holds a Canada Research able for systemic and unacceptable social f we are to believe our intrepid prime Chair in Political Economy and Social inequalities. The census enables citizens, Iminister, Stephen Harper, and his Governance at the University of Alberta. resolute sidekick, , the civil society organizations, and govern- long-form census was terminated in the ments alike to track critical indicators of spring of 2010 for the noblest of reasons. Without knowledge of citizen well-being and social justice The minority Conservative government across time—among them, disparities simply could not condone a mandatory their shared plight, among the rich and poor, the differently census, which not only threatened or- vulnerable groups are abled, Aboriginals and other Canadians, dinary Canadians with fines and jail men and women, recent immigrants and time for non-compliance but also in- individualized and left native-born Canadians, and visible and truded far too deeply into their private non-visible minorities. As the 2006 affairs. Why should Canadians be forced alone to struggle with Human Resources and Skills Develop- to tell government about the number of ment Canada (HRSDC) Equity Data toilets in their house? To what end? As problems that are too Report explains, “The Census is the best Industry Minister Clement further ex- often labelled as source for demographic, social and eco- plained, “the government of Canada was nomic views of Canadians. Also, it is the the heavy. We were the ones who were personal failings. only reliable data source for women, coercing Canadians … on behalf of the Aboriginal peoples, and members of private sector, other governments and visible minorities at the detail we require.” the provinces.” ments, and prominent policy think tanks, While census data are a necessary The Harper government stuck to this to keep the long form. ingredient for good social policy, they unlikely story despite mounting evidence also have a critical role in breaking down that its case against the long-form census Ignorance: barriers to full citizenship for Canada’s had little grounding in reality and in the Bad Public Policy most disadvantaged and vulnerable face of mounting opposition from an Canadians are rightly baffled about the groups. Advances toward citizenship uncommonly broad spectrum of detrac- Harper government’s seemingly inexpli- equality have been premised on the cap- tors. Over several decades, only a hand- cable determination to kill the long-form acity of equality-seeking groups to make ful of Canadians had ever complained census. Why would any government their case by demonstrating, not the about the alleged intrusiveness of the prefer to govern with unreliable and inad- least through reliable census data, that long form, and, in recent memory, only equate data relating to the changing they have been systemically denied full one person had been charged for non- needs and complexion of Canadian inclusion in Canadian society, and to compliance. Moreover, Canada’s chief society? What would motivate a minority demand ameliorative action from their statistician resigned his position, lest government to turn its back on an government. anyone conclude that the government’s uncharacteristically broad coalition of The cancellation of the 2011 PALS proposed alternative, a voluntary house- business, governmental, research, and (Participation and Activity Limitation hold survey, was a reliable substitute for civil society organizations, which is ada- Survey)—a post-censal survey that col- the long-form census. mant that the scrapping of the long form lects detailed information on the nature The government effectively conceded is a bad idea and bad public policy? The and severity of barriers that confront to this fact when, threatened by a court answer to these questions appears to be people with disabilities—also demon- challenge from francophone Canadians, as unfortunate as it is cynical—a bad idea strates that the Harper government is it abruptly placed a language skills ques- with respect to good governance might neither interested in identifying these tion on the mandatory short form. Apart be a good idea with respect to partisan barriers nor empowering disabled Can- from this minor concession, however, politics and, in particular, the silencing adians to seek redress. Without know- the Harper government has rebuffed of those who would make equality-based ledge of their shared plight, vulnerable myriad pleas from almost 300 groups, claims in Canadian politics. groups are individualized and left alone representing virtually every sector of The census is a necessary mechan- to struggle with problems that are too Canadian society, subnational govern- ism both to measure our collective prog- often labelled as personal failings. From

30 Canada Watch • Spring 2011 a strictly partisan and ideological per- spective, then, the termination of the There are many reasons why the Harper long-form census does make sense if the government does not want us to know how primary goals are to immobilize equality- seeking groups and conceal growing Canadians, in all their variety, have fared social inequalities. Prime Minister Harper, an economist by trade, knows this. through the recent recession and under Conservative stewardship. Gender Equity and the Harper Agenda Harper’s determined refusal to bend to Law, Canadian Research Institute for the closed CHRC offices in Vancouver, public pressure on the census issue is Advancement of Women, Centre for Toronto, and Halifax. These three intimately bound up with his govern- Equality Rights in Accommodation, offices, located in cities that host the vast ment’s broader and sustained assault on Conseil d’intervention pour l’accès des majority of racialized people and recent the very idea of social equity and citizen- femmes au travail, MATCH International, immigrants to Canada, accounted for ship equality. The Conservative govern- International Planned Parenthood Fed- three-quarters of all signed complaints ment has not concealed its disdain for eration, KAIROS, Ontario Association of to the commission in 2008. equality seeking as an aspiration for pol- Interval and Transition Houses, and itical activism and policy making. Harp- many more organizations that have Benchmarking Ottawa’s er’s anti-equity campaign initially targeted advanced the claims of the vulnerable Performance the gender equity agenda, which was and disadvantaged for decades. There are many reasons why the Harper launched by the Royal Commission on In addition to the defunding of NGOs, government does not want us to know the Status of Women 40 years ago. Since the Harper government also has taken how Canadians, in all their variety, have 2006, Canadians have been told in one direct aim at the promise of equity. fared through the recent recession and way or another that gender equality has Shortly after the 2006 federal election, under Conservative stewardship. The been achieved: to quote , the first for example, it decided not to abide by 2006 census, conducted in compara- in a revolving door of Harper’s Ministers the recommendations of the Pay Equity tively good economic times, revealed a Responsible for the Status of Women, Working Group. Subsequently, it resisted number of disturbing trends that speak “this government does fundamentally reclassification of positions that prom- directly to the social equity issues—a believe that all women are equal.” ised to reduce gender disparities in growing income gap between rich and Thus, the word equality was purged income and status in the federal public poor Canadians, the stagnation of the from the Status of Women mandate and service. The Harper government also working wage, stubbornly high levels of website, its Independent Policy Program aspires to deny public sector workers child poverty, growing income dispari- was abruptly terminated, and most of its access to the Canadian Human Rights ties between racialized and non-racial- regional offices were closed. Over 100 Commission (CHRC) to resolve pay ized Canadians as well as Aboriginal and women’s programs were eliminated, as equity claims. In July 2010, it launched other Canadians, and ongoing pressures was the Court Challenges Program, an internal review of the Public Service on Canadian families to meet their child- which provided funding for all disadvan- Employment Act, months prior to a care needs, to name a few examples. taged groups to challenge discrimination scheduled parliamentary review. To be clear, the Harper government in federal legislation. Next on the agenda This internal review was apparently continues to rely upon, indeed flaunt, was the defunding of the broad network triggered by a single complainant who Statistics Canada data to demonstrate of equity-seeking groups that have claimed she was denied employment its sound economic management, espe- advanced equality claims in Canada. because a position was reserved for cially in comparison with other Organ- qualified applicants from one of the four isation for Economic Co-operation and Defunding NGOs equity groups designated in the Act. The Development (OECD) countries. The In the last five years, Canada’s equity Senate Standing Committee on Human cancellation of the long-form census, in infrastructure has been quietly and sys- Rights has twice reported (2007, 2010) contrast, promises to conceal Canada’s tematically razed. The list of front-line that the federal civil service is failing to deteriorating position on many different organizations that have been felled or meet its equity objectives. Minister Jason social indices. We already know that severely debilitated by the budgetary axe Kenney, however, has wrongly implied Canada fell from 7th place in 2004 to is as stunning as it is reprehensible— on several occasions that employment 25th place in 2009 on the World Eco- among them are the National Action equity policies are in conflict with civil nomic Forum Gender Gap Index. In Committee on the Status of Women, service merit principles. In early 2010, 2010, the OECD reported that Canada National Association of Women and the moreover, the Harper government Manufactured ignorance, page 34

Canada Watch • Spring 2011 31 Conquering the urban nation

iety of state investment, which sees such The Same Old Same Old By Simon Black hen Rob Ford was elected mayor and Roger Keil investment as key to increased global of Toronto on October 25, 2010, competitiveness and economic growth. W Simon Black is a resident PhD student However, in true Machiavellian style, the tables were turned on the Canadian at the City Institute at York University. such concerns are less important in urban political landscape. Until that time, Roger Keil is director of the City Institute it was inconceivable that a conservative at York University and a professor in Harper’s shrewd electoral calculations populist would be able to engage the the Faculty of Environmental Studies. than pandering to particular factions of imagination of an urban electorate in this capital, which, like the oil and gas sector, country. In fact, none of the big Canadian Under Harper’s provide political and financial support. cities, regardless of whether there were The Conservatives were elected with an parties at the local level or not, were undoing of most of anti-urban coalition, not a surprise given governed by a Conservative mayor after that “red” urban Tories had been largely Toronto’s Mel Lastman resigned in 2003. the New Deal, cities marginalized in a post-Reform Conserva- Ford overcame this spell by beating out tive Party of Canada with its power base former Liberal provincial minister have remained subject in rural, small-town, and suburban areas, and NDP stalwart to a structural fiscal mostly in the West. Harper’s electoral Joe Pantalone to win by a landslide. strategy was not reliant on winning seats Raised in a political family (his father crisis. The legacies of in major cities but did retain support in was an Ontario Tory cabinet minister), urban Alberta, where resource-led Ford mirrors the profile of many minis- downloading and growth dominates the economy. Since ters in former Ontario Premier Mike elected, Harper’s attention to the urban Harris’s administration, which was devolution have left has been limited to massive support for replete with small business persons and mega-events such as the G20, though dynastic Tories. After the Harris govern- municipalities cash- arguably the G20 publicity disaster may ment amalgamated Toronto in 1998 and strapped and largely have been counterproductive to the bled the “megacity” dry through down- Tories’ staged performative strategy. loading and devolution, it was common reliant on property wisdom that no Conservative was elect- Third-Way Neoliberalism able south of Steeles Avenue. In fact, taxes as a source of Undoubtedly, Harper’s principal urban when Stephen Harper won his first min- legacy thus far has been undoing the ority government, he held no seats in any fiscal income. New Deal for Cities and with it, the Paul of Canada’s big three cities, a situation Martin Liberal’s limited progress on that did not improve in his repeat in urban issues (including a Cities Secre- 2008. His program had little urban con- Canada’s Urban Crisis tariat in the Privy Council Office). While tent to offer beyond a perfunctory refer- Yet Conservative antipathy to the urban the full rebate of GST paid by municipal- ence to security, often a stand-in for is not surprising given Harper’s Machia- ities and a transfer share of the federal conservative urban programmatics. vellian focus on maintaining a grip on gas tax remain, the New Deal established The lack of attention to urban issues power. In many respects, the anti-urban a federal presence in urban Canada. This is perplexing. Canada is, of course, now bias of the ruling government is bad for opened a window of opportunity for cit- an urban country. Eighty percent of the the economic performance of the coun- ies and provinces to build a pan-Cana- country’s population lives in urban try. Gridlocked highways and underser- dian urban strategy around associational areas. One in three lives in the three viced urban infrastructure dent the governance, an innovation agenda, largest cities, , Toronto, and competitiveness of Canadian cities in a social and physical infrastructure Vancouver. In the urbanized stretch global economy where urban agglom- renewal, and human capital develop- along the US – Canadian border, rapid erations have become central nodes of ment. However limited in its potential to urbanization, strain on social services, capital accumulation. Harper could rebuild social citizenship, based on environmental stresses, and infrastruc- lubricate the flows of capital and labour principles of universality and social jus- ture deficits are the daily fare of political with significant state investment, but his tice, this third-way neoliberalism repre- decision-makers. The Conservative gov- dogmatic brand of neoliberalism in sented a more progressive vision than ernment seemed aloof to those issues at which less government equals more Harper’s anti-urban politics. The New best and inimical for the most part. freedom eschews a more pragmatic var- Deal for Cities also opened space for

32 Canada Watch • Spring 2011 new claims making by civil society If Harper can lose his of federal jurisdiction, such as immigra- groups organized around urban issues tion settlement, it will do so in ways that such as , affordable hous- rural and Western see limited federal intervention into ing, and poverty reduction. provincial/municipal spheres of govern- Under Harper’s undoing of most of bias and steal a page ance. We can be sure that, unlike the the New Deal, cities have remained New Deal, under Harper’s watch there subject to a structural fiscal crisis. The from Rob Ford’s book, will be no exercise of the federal spend- legacies of downloading and devolution ing power to benefit cities. Harper has have left municipalities cash-strapped he could form a stated publicly, “Ottawa has stuck its and largely reliant on property taxes as majority. nose into provincial and local matters a source of fiscal income. As the recent into areas where they didn’t have much election in Toronto demonstrated, gov- expertise” (Prime Minister Harper, Federation of Canadian Municipalities, ernments that try to break out of the Deal, but also by attacking progressive June 2, 2006). neoliberal straitjacket by introducing urban initiatives like Vancouver’s safe new taxes can face tax revolts and a injection site, which sought to popularize right-wing backlash, which plays into a harm-reduction approach to drug use Harper’s Electoral Gamble Harper’s politics and builds a populist and public health. In the area of child So what does the Ford victory in Toronto urban base the federal Conservatives care, the Martin Liberal’s Foundations mean for Harper? Mike Harris and his could capitalize on come election time. program saw cities playing a key role in former (and Harper’s current) Finance In this, Harper’s anti-urbanism is itself service design and delivery in a national Minister (and Ford “family friend”) Jim an urban political strategy. The fiscal early-childhood program. Harper can- Flaherty were among the 5,000 or so crises of municipalities provide the pol- celled the initiative in 2006, introduced revellers who feted the new Toronto itical environment in which neoliberal the universal child care benefit to replace mayor on election night. If Harper can common sense can flourish. Ideas that it, and cut out cities altogether. In addi- lose his rural and Western bias and steal occupied the fringes of urban political tion, Harper’s campaign against the a page from Rob Ford’s book, he could discourse move to the centre as contract- Status of Women Canada has had direct form a majority. Especially if gains are ing out garbage collection, introducing urban consequences, closing 12 of 16 made in suburban Ontario, in the soft user fees, privatizing facilities, and regional offices and cutting funds to edge of Toronto—both in the older sub- expanding for-profit daycare centres women’s NGOs, which both advocate urbs and the 905 exurban regions with public subsidies, etc. become rea- and provide services such as rape crisis around the city—as well as in suburban sonable responses to strained budgets centres. On crime, Harper ignored the Quebec. In the 905 regions, the signs and a frustrated citizenry. big-city mayors’ call for a ban on hand- already point in this direction since Harper’s urban neglect has been par- guns (led by Toronto’s then mayor David , a law-and-order conser- ticularly pronounced in the area of social Miller), while the government’s recent vative and former police chief in both policy, yet, apart from the New Deal sentencing reforms stand to negatively Toronto and Ontario, won a prized Lib- aberration, this approach is as much a affect marginalized populations. eral stronghold in , “the city continuation of the federal Liberal lega- Cities had a central place in the stim­ above Toronto.” cies of the 1990s as it is a new path. ulus program, which was acknowledged As for the city itself, the futility of past Federal withdrawal from the social field by Harper in a speech to the Federation Conservative campaigns seems to make has been highly problematic for Canad- of Canadian Municipalities. However, the way for new hope for the provincial and ian cities. Cities and provinces are trying premature end to stimulus spending and federal Conservatives in the wake of the to contain these pressures through a the introduction of austerity measures Ford electoral juggernaut. While Rob rollout of targeted social services, invest- signals that the ­federal – urban partner- Ford’s brother Doug has just been ments in human capital development, ship was a one-off necessity and not the elected city councillor in Ford’s old dis- and poverty management strategies. resurrection of the New Deal. trict, one of Ford’s former mayoral com- With socio-spatial polarization, in- Philosophically, Harper is committed petitors, Rocco Rossi, has already signed creased inequality, intensifying poverty, to “open federalism” and a respect for up with PC leader ’s team in homelessness, and the expansion of the constitutional jurisdiction that prov- the Toronto riding of Eglinton-Lawrence precarious employment, the fiscal bur- inces have over cities. “Open federal- for Ontario’s forthcoming election cam- den on municipalities is tremendous. ism” facilitates the neoliberal project paign. Looking more closely at Ford’s through place-based competition (prov- emerging administration after a little Making Matters Worse ince vs. province and city-region vs. more than 100 days betrays some Harper has further exacerbated these city-region). While the Harper govern- uncanny similarities with the way Harper problems, not only by killing the New ment may address certain urban issues Conquering the urban nation, page 34

Canada Watch • Spring 2011 33 Conquering the urban nation continued from page 33 does things in Ottawa. While Ford pre- tends to want to run Toronto in executive In true Harperian style, the big and potentially style like long-time conservative mayor most controversial files, such as the subway Hazel McCallion’s , his brother Doug fantasizes about the Chi- extension instead of the light-rail-oriented cago model of strong mayoral politics. Transit City plan or the proposal to privatize Hardball politics: Playing for Keeps garbage collection, are handled on a short In true Harperian style, the big and leash directly by the Ford brothers. potentially most controversial files, such as the subway extension instead of the light-rail-oriented Transit City plan or the Harper has played high-stakes poker proposal, intentional union-busting priva- proposal to privatize garbage collection, throughout most of his two terms as tization plans, and make-rich programs are handled on a short leash directly by minority leader of Canada. He may soon for his friends in private business. Harper the Ford brothers. In addition, reminis- be able to see a payoff when he carries could lose his gamble for the urban voter cent of how the Ottawa press corps has the Conservative standard down Yonge and drag his provincial and municipal dealt with the prime minister, many Street. Yet, things may all turn out differ- counterparts down with him. The fate of pundits have played the role of embed- ently. this scenario is highly dependent on ded journalists in a war against all things The Harper-Hudak-Ford triumvirate whether the Liberals will (re)articulate Miller and all things progressive. With may be just a Conservative pipe dream. an urban vision that moves beyond nar- Sue-Ann Levy of the Toronto Sun leading We could, instead, end up with another row anti-tax sentiments to address Can- the charge, other influential writers like and perhaps weaker Harper majority, a ada’s urban crisis, and whether a fickle Royson James have all but abdicated failed run to conquer Queen’s Park by electorate will buy into a more progres- their fourth-estate prerogative of critical Hudak, and a lame-duck Mayor Ford who sive urbanity than that symbolized by the interrogation of power. might stumble over a botched transit politics of Ford and Harper.

Canada’s fractured political culture continued from page 29 urban seats, where they have been hon- is for the future. As long as the Bloc are centre or left-of-centre in their incli- ing their appeal to ethnic voters. Or the Québécois can successfully mobilize nations will, for the time being, have to Liberals may eventually begin to regain Quebec nationalist support, minority continue to rely on the Bloc to shield some of the support they have bled to Parliaments will remain the norm in our them from the full impact of a potential the NDP or the Greens. However, all this multinational federation. Canadians who majority Conservative government.

Manufactured ignorance continued from page 31 ranked 27th out of 30 OECD countries minority groups and their mainstream disparities are growing and among with respect to gender pay gaps. Simi- counterparts in education, employ- which groups. Like the proverbial three larly, Canada has plunged from 4th to ment, income, housing, and political monkeys that can neither see, hear, nor 9th place among 14 comparable OECD participation. say evil, the cancellation of the long-form countries on the UN Human Develop- There is little doubt that the strategists census is a cynical partisan ploy that ment Index. Canada now ranks dead in the Prime Minister’s Office had seeks to entrench a climate of indiffer- last among 25 OECD countries with already suspected that the 2011 long- ence to social inequalities and to effect- respect to early child care and develop- form census would reveal to all Canad- ive social policies to combat them. This ment. This year, moreover, the UN ians and the world an increasingly frayed is a manufactured ignorance in the mak- Human Rights Council urged Ottawa to and inequitable social fabric. Canadians ing, which, if met with silence and with- address the growing disparities between have a right to know whether social out solidarity, diminishes us all.

34 Canada Watch • Spring 2011 The Full Measure of the Man and His Policies The revolution of the night watchman crucial to what I call the revolution of the Wooing Quebec: BY Errol Mendes Just Follow the Money night watchman. Harper has imported Errol Mendes is a professor in this revolution from the United States and n the 2006 federal election, in an effort the Faculty of Law at the University the hard-right, Republican “destroy the Ito gain more Quebec seats, Stephen of Ottawa and a former senior adviser Harper campaigned in that province with of the Privy Council of Canada. enemy” politics. The night watchman the promise to “limit the spending power part is a legacy of the 19th century—what that the Liberals have so badly abused.” some term “minarchist libertarianism.” Once elected, Prime Minister Harper did The night watchman Theorists include Herbert Spencer, Fried­ not immediately follow up on this prom- promotes a minimal rick Hayek, Ayn Rand, and ­modern-day ise; however, this campaigning in the promoters Robert Nozick and Milton federal election opened the door for role for the state in Friedman. Quebec Premier Jean Charest, after the The night watchman promotes a min- rise of Prime Minister Harper, to call for a free society, which imal role for the state in a free society, the creation of a Charter to limit the which is protecting the liberty of citizens. federal spending power. is protecting the This would include being seen as rigor- ously protecting citizens from crime In contrast, after the February 2007 liberty of citizens. federal budget and the subsequent prov- (even if the crime rate is falling—in order incial election in Quebec, the Conserva- to keep voters fearful of crime), and tive government in Ottawa seemed tial to turn the federal government into a being seen as protecting the citizens unconcerned about whether federal tax postal service for the transfer of federal from foreign aggression (even if there dollars going into equalization payments funds. One Quebec commentator sug- are no real discernible threats). In this to Quebec were properly used or not. gested that this seemed a variation of fashion, Harper’s focus on mandatory Finance Minister Jim Flaherty gave Que- bribing the electorate with their own minimum sentences may seem irrational bec an additional $2.3 billion in equaliza- money. It was an attempt to bribe them in light of the falling crime rate and ware- tion payments for the 2007 – 8 fiscal year, with other people’s (in this case, other house prisons may seem to hold the including $700 million in equalization provinces’) money. potential to become massive schools for adjustment. These payments did not Indeed, the Harper government’s real crime, but the legislation is very rational have conditions or other strings attached agenda may be a slow suffocation of the in the context of creating the minimal to them, in contrast to what Harper spending power by making sure that state. In a similar fashion, spending on called the “outrageous spending power” there is not very much money to spend. unnecessary fighter jets also seems of the Liberals. Equalization payments Proof of this agenda comes from one of irrational. However, it is a critical step on are primarily intended under s. 36(2) of Harper’s main ideological mentors. Tom the path to the minimal state where the the Constitution Act, 1982 to “ensure that Flanagan, who was the Conservative federal treasury has little capacity provincial governments have sufficient Party’s campaign chair for the 2004 elec- beyond the cherished areas of the night revenues to provide reasonable compar- tion and former chief of staff to Harper, watchman. able levels of public services at reason- is reported as stating that tightening the The Long Arm of ably comparable levels of taxation.” screws on the federal government would the Revolution So Far leave more money in the taxpayer’s The revolution may be substantially Hands-Off pocket and make it harder for the federal accomplished due to the following Equalization Payments government to spend. actions by the Harper night watchman: To the astonishment of many, including large parts of the electorate in Quebec, Destroy the 1. Massive military spending—includ- Premier Charest committed these funds Opposition Politics ing the possibly unnecessary fighter to a tax cut if he won re-election, rather This silent or hidden agenda has been jets, whose real costs could spiral than investment in the critical needs of accomplished through three Conserva- up to almost $30 billion, according the social services in the province, such tives budgets. At the same time, the to the Parliamentary Budget Office. as higher education and health care. Conservatives are among the most prof- This is almost double the estimate Such federal acquiescence in the abuse ligate spenders in recent years. This provided by the Harper government. of equalization payments has the poten- spending has been in key areas that are The revolution of the night watchman, page 36

Canada Watch • Spring 2011 35 The revolution of the night watchman continued from page 35 2. Crime and justice initiatives that will Te h first step is to While Canadians have indeed been result in major expenditures on bribed with their own money in the areas prison expansions, new prisons, eliminate … opposition described above, the night watchman and the hiring of thousands of new revolution has been camouflaged while personnel to staff these warehouses to the minimalist Harper has sought to create a greater of prisoners. The Parliamentary voting bloc in the goal of attaining the Budget Officer estimated that these state agenda. majority, which will finally complete the mega-prisons could cost from $10 to revolution. The first step is to eliminate $13 billion over five years. 2011. This again would result in a the main opposition to the minimalist 3. Wedge politics tax measures de- cumulative loss of $60 billion in fed- state agenda; then the Liberal Party of signed to bring more of the elector- eral revenues. Canada through vicious attack ads, and ate into the camp of the night watch- Under Harper’s night watchman revo- finally, public funding for all parties. man. Wedge politics spending delib- lution, the Canadian budget has fallen When completed, Canadians may have erately undermines national pro- from a surplus of $13 billion in 2007 to a completely different country from the grams that could be funded by the an estimated deficit of $39.5 billion for one their ancestors contemplated. federal spending power. The classic this fiscal year. While much of this defi- A distinguishing feature of Canada example is the “universal child cit was stimulus spending to offset the since its inception as a federal state has care” program. The $100 per month impact of the global economic crisis, the been the concern that while the auton- benefit offers a totally illusory restraining power on federal spending omy of different levels of government is choice to parents in child care; in plays magnificently into the Canadian a fundamental principle, the unifying role reality, the payment prevents a na- night watchman’s agenda. of federal government to promote a com- tional daycare program from being Flanagan has been quoted as stating mon citizenship is also of paramount financially feasible. Other examples that through this dismantling of federal importance. This role of the federal gov- are the children’s fitness tax credit revenue capacity, the Harper Conserva- ernment and Parliament—that citizenship and the tax-free savings account tives have “gradually re-engineered the means caring about the quality of life and introduced in the 2008 budget. system. I’m quite impressed with it. … social opportunities of Canadians wher- 4. Perhaps the most devastating action They’re boxing in the ability of the fed- ever they may reside in this vast coun- to those who oppose the revolution eral government to come up with new try—became critical in the aftermath of of the night watchman was the program ideas. … The federal govern- the Great Depression and the period after reduction of GST—one of the most ment is now more constrained, the prov- the Second World War. These fundamen- important sources of revenue for the inces have more revenue, and conserva- tal principles and exigencies of Canadian federal spending power—from 7 per- tives should be happy.” Flanagan seems federalism were supposed to bind the cent to 5 percent. The 2 percent particularly proud that the Harper gov- country as much as the national railway GST cut will reduce the federal ernment has achieved this killing of the and other symbols of nationhood. The purse by over $76 billion in lost rev- federal spending power quietly and ability of national governments to utilize enue between 2008 and 2013—the without any backlash. a spending power is not foreign to fed- budgetary amounts and period that erations around the world. The idea that would be needed to establish many G overnment on a Choke drives this national ethic of sharing and shared-cost programs such as the Chain and the New caring is that, without a social union of national daycare program. Political Landscape citizens, the sustainability of a political 5. In addition, the most recent cuts to This quiet death of the federal spending and economic union is endangered, as the corporate tax rate—even though power also places opposition parties in we see in trouble spots around the world. compared with those of the United a straitjacket regarding any promises to The Harper night watchman assault on States and Europe, Canada’s corpor- resurrect federal spending in areas of the spending power not only could well ate tax rates were among the low- joint or provincial jurisdiction such as result in the formal surrender of the est—has meant that the empty fed- pharmacare, child care, or spending to federal government’s ability to reinforce eral coffers will be a permanent improve the conditions in the social union for new nationwide obstacle to future, national cost- communities (for instance, the Kelowna shared-cost programs; it could also shared programs with the provinces Accord). This realization has forced the undermine perhaps the most treasured such as daycare or pharmacare. Liberal opposition to take a stand on social union achievement of Canada— The rates are planned to be reduced corporate tax rates and even propose to the universally administered and acces- to 15 percent from 19 percent in raise them to pre-night watchman levels. sible health-care system.

36 Canada Watch • Spring 2011 The Harper government’s communication strategy: The message, the message, the message

The Harper communication strategy Revolution by Stealth By Fred Fletcher f the hallmark of revolution is funda- is novel not only in substance but also in Fred Fletcher is University Professor mental change in political values or tone and process. The tone is ultra-par- I Emeritus, Communication Studies and tisan, displaying in particular a distrust governing institutions, then the Harper Political Science, York University government’s communication strategy and a frequent commentator on of the Liberal Party. The process involves can reasonably be characterized as Canadian and Ontario politics. several key elements: very tight central revolution by stealth or incremental control of government information revolution. (exemplified by the Message Event Pro- In their drive to rid Ottawa of what Policies and practices posal system, instituted in 2007); a gen- they regard as a pervasive Liberal/liberal that seem to make no eral failure to distinguish government culture, the Harper team has also, per- and party-related messages; attempts to haps as a side effect, undermined long- sense in tactical terms intimidate independent watchdog agen- established parliamentary practices and cies; interference with the access-to- advanced the trend toward executive may reflect the information system; and extensive use dominance in Canada, weakening the of centrally drafted “talking points” for checks and balances in the system. As longer-term agenda. both government and party messaging, self-defined outsiders, who felt disre- including orchestrated interventions by spected in Ottawa, the key people in the party supporters on call-in shows and online commentary sites. The highly Prime Minister’s Office apparently feel longer-term agenda. The most obvious partisan tone and the questioning of the no allegiance to understandings they had example is the decision to make the motives of party leaders in a variety of never been party to. long-form census voluntary. Commenta- forms, including recent pre-writ advertis- A key element in the strategy for tors have variously interpreted this action ing, also pushes the conventional bound- change has been effective control of as a gesture to the Conservative party’s aries of political discourse. The Harper government messaging. While certainly libertarian wing or as a plot to dilute the team apparently sees no reason to treat aimed at retaining and consolidating data needed for an effective welfare state. opposition MPs as “honourable mem- Conservative party control of the federal It seems more likely that it was designed bers,” as Globe and Mail public affairs government, the communication strat- to undermine the independent status of columnist Lawrence Martin put it recently, egy also reflects longer-term objectives. Statistics Canada, independent by con- regardless of parliamentary tradition. These appear to include: (1) cleansing vention and not by law. federal institutions of what Conservatives From this perspective, the decision regard as deeply embedded Liberal/ was part of a campaign to control gov- Pushing Boundaries: liberal values; (2) eroding the Pearson­ ernment messaging by weakening the Redefining Political Culture ian consensus that underlies the Canad- independence of government agencies In pursuit of both short-term tactical ian welfare state; and (3) attacking the that provide information or oversight advantage and longer-term change, the independence of government institutions independent of the government of the Harper government has repeatedly over- that threaten the imperial (or presiden- day. In its edition of January 15, 2011, the ridden established conventions of the tial) prime minister. There is nothing identified eight agency Canadian parliamentary system. Like very secret about the overall strategy and heads replaced by the Harper govern- other Westminster parliamentary sys- it helps make sense of what appear to be ment. Others, like the chief electoral tems, the Canadian variant does not have tactical lapses when viewed through an officer, were the subject of public attacks, written rules on such fundamental issues electoral lens. a violation of the convention that public as the formation of governments after an servants were not to be criticized for election, nor on some aspects of when Tactics: Reigning in partisan ends. Any official who came to Parliament may be prorogued or dis- Government Agencies office when Liberal governments were solved and an election called. As Peter Policies and practices that seem to make in power seemed to be suspect, regard- Russell, quoted in Walrus (March 2011, no sense in tactical terms may reflect the less of credentials. The message, page 38

Canada Watch • Spring 2011 37 The message continued from page 37 p. 30), has put it, “these matters are sup- plurality of seats into a mandate to form posedly governed by unwritten constitu- [T]he online-organized a government. It is part of the general tional conventions based on political public outcry may trend over the past several governments consensus—a consensus that has broken toward executive dominance—an emerg- down in Canada.” have ensured that ing presidential system without most of The consensus that supports these the checks and balances. The conven- conventions, as well as others that estab- prorogation in the tion in Westminster parliaments is that lish limits of acceptable political dis- the government must have the support course, is not so much a public consen- face of a united of a majority in the House, regardless of sus as an understanding among key opposition in the party label. political actors that accepting some lim- The prorogation of Parliament in its on political action is necessary for the House of Commons 2008, with an implied threat of a public functioning and long-term survival of the attack on the governor general if the system. When one actor in the system will not be so easy adjournment was not granted, may have violates these understandings, the only been a desperate tactical gamble but, like effective sanction is loss of public sup- in future. the attacks on parliamentary oversight port. To put it another way, when conven- of government, it reflected a kind of tions are involved, a government can do contempt for Parliament. In this case, whatever it can get away with. ing points have put forward a new con- however, the online-organized public From this perspective, an effective vention: that only the “winning party” outcry may have ensured that proroga- communication strategy is an important can legitimately lead a coalition. Prime tion in the face of a united opposition in part of the process of structural change. Minister Harper himself has used this the House of Commons will not be so If there is little or no public outrage, a winner – loser locution several times. By easy in future. convention abrogated will be a conven- winner, he seems to mean the party that tion abandoned. In the contest for public wins the most seats in the House of Com- Lost Confidence: support, the Harper government has won mons, since the Conservative received A Turning Point more times than it has lost. only 38 percent of the popular vote in Nevertheless, the Conservative party 2008. The argument appears to be that actually made gains in 2008, despite the Demonizing Coalition the only way for a coalition or alliance fact that the prime minister had violated Governments of other parties to form a government, the spirit of his fixed-date election legis- The one clear win for the Harper govern- even with the confidence of the House, lation, advancing the argument that an ment’s communication strategy is the would be to overturn what the Conserva- election was required because the demonization of coalition governments, tive communication machine presented House of Commons had become dys- having successfully exploited the ill- as the expressed will of the voters. The functional. This was a dramatic reversal advised Liberal – NDP coalition (with BQ effectiveness of this strategy is supported of the central tenet of responsible gov- support) proposal in 2008. Conservative in part by an Ipsos Reid poll for the ernment. The election was called not ads and spokespersons denounced the Dominion Institute, released in Decem- because the House had lost confidence coalition as a plot to overthrow the duly ber 2008, in which 51 percent of a in the government but because the gov- elected government. Although public national sample believe that the prime ernment had lost confidence in the opinion seems uncertain about coali- minister is directly elected by the voters. House. This argument was not, it seems, tions, the Conservative strategy has at This finding was interpreted as demon- decisively rejected by voters. least made many voters nervous about strating public ignorance of the parlia- The prime minister took this view, he them. mentary system, but it can also be seen now says, not only because the govern- While the specific concern about as a reflection of what voters thought ment’s legislation was not being passed coalitions may not last, given that most they were doing when they cast their as quickly as he wanted, but also of the 55 parliamentary systems in the ballots, an indication of a movement because the level of rancour in Parlia- world are often governed by formal coali- toward executive dominance. ment was at a high level. In most minor- tions or party alliances, the shift in how ity situations, the government reaches the public views parliamentary govern- Executive Dominance out to the opposition parties and seeks ment may have more staying power. The effect of Harper’s institutional creep to find enough common ground to get In response to the coalition in the is to turn the House of Commons into an legislation passed. This has been done , the Conservative talk- electoral college and the gaining of a The message, page 43

38 Canada Watch • Spring 2011 Politics of immigration and the controversial refugee reforms are cause for brief excitement. Timelines Stricter Migration By Liette Gilbert Enforcement expediting the refugee determination Liette Gilbert is a professor in the Faculty of process have been (unrealistically) onservatives have stepped up immi- Environmental Studies at York University. Cgration enforcement and refugee shortened, but rights to representation admissibility by “playing tough” on the and appeal provisions on humanitarian alleged abuse of Canadian generosity. Who, after years of and compassionate grounds have been Stephen Harper’s government has seriously eroded. restricted programs, reformed laws, and public discourse about The Minister of Citizenship, Immigra- introduced stricter control schemes and the broken refugee tion, and Multiculturalism, , penalties for infringements to immigra- proudly spoke of the achieved amend- tion and refugee laws. Legislative system, would not ments on procedural reforms as the changes have given greater discretionary result of the “remarkable spirit of coop- powers to the minister and officers of favour a faster and eration,” which led to the legislation. citizenship, immigration, and multicul- Refugee advocates, however, deplored turalism to select, limit, and fast-track fairer determination the sparse consultation and its associ- new immigration applications for those ated non-disclosure condition. In spite deemed desirable migrants—and con- process? of the critiques, the Act appears to sequently to hinder and deny consider- assuage both public opinion and political ation for undesirable others. powers, bolstering the urgency for expe- New visa requirements, lifts on the The Refugee Reform Act ditious and fair policy reform. However, removal moratorium, workplace raids, In recent years, Canada’s refugee system the most serious and unpredictable pro- cuts to service organizations and family has balanced an international reputation vision of the Act remains the unpreced- reunification programs, and anti-smug- for generosity with a national discourse ented concentration of discretionary gling legislation that penalizes the of “broken system.” The Balanced Refu- power in the hands of the Minister of smuggled rather than smugglers have gee Reform Act of 2010 is characterized Citizenship, Immigration, and Multicul- been among the most recent priorities by a dualistic and moralistic discourse turalism—especially in light of the cur- of the Harper government. Conservatives opposing generosity and illegality. rent minister’s hortatory language and also defended policies justifying security Despite the numerous critiques of immi- prejudicial rhetoric about bogus refugee certificates and rendition to torture. Tem- gration and refugee advocates, the Act claimants. porary migrant programs have been was accepted as a compromise by many extended from agriculture to the con- sides of the political spectrum, opposi- Bogus Refugee Claimants struction and tourism sectors. Canada, tion parties included. Who, after years Prime Minister Harper and Minister Ken- in its increasing self-indulgent generosity, of public discourse about the broken ney have unfailingly and openly con- now welcomes about four times more refugee system, would not favour a faster demned so-called bogus refugee claim- temporary residents than permanent and fairer determination process? ants. From US war resisters to Mexican residents. These measures and trends The positive changes in the Act are and Roma refugee claimants, Harper have squeezed particular migrants out mostly limited to repairing the current and Kenney have reiterated the presump- of the legal and permanent provisions of procedural inefficiencies and structural tion that alleged “bogus refugee claim- immigration laws as they have been apathy. Such is the case for the overdue ants” enter the country “illegally,” “jump rendered inadmissible and “illegal.” Bill implementation of the Appeal Division the immigration queue,” and clog up the C-11, also known as the Balanced Refu- by 2012—initially part of the 2001 Immi- system by adding to the alarming back- gee Reform Act, now officially extends gration and Refugee Protection Act that log. Kenney repeatedly associated “real” the discourses of illegality and criminal- was never delivered. Newly appointed refugee claimants as being overseas in ity to refugee claimants by legislating the public servants are slowly tackling the refugee camps while labelling claimants discretionary power of the minister to estimated backlog of 60,000 applica- at port of entry as “fake,” and con- develop a list of designated “(un)safe” tions. A timid budgetary increase (the sequently less worthy or even unworthy countries of origin dictating the (in) first in ten years) and a small expansion of protection. Kenney unambiguously admissibility and meanings of desirable of resettled refugees (predominantly suggested that port-of-entry refugee and undesirable refugees. associated with private sponsorships) Politics of immigration, page 40

Canada Watch • Spring 2011 39 Politics of immigration continued from page 39 claimants are fraudulent and opportu- in the name of national security, fiscal nistic asylum seekers. He then indis- For many, responsibility, and accountability to criminately enacted travel visa require- the imposition of stand up to the abuse of Canadian gen- ments on Mexico and the Czech Repub- erosity, the Conservatives directly curtail lic in order to deter “bogus” refugee visa requirements the rights of refugee claimants from applications. alleged “safe” countries by attempting to Harper defended his minister’s visa was seen simply as dissociate refugee rights from the most requirements and the need to maintain basic human rights. No matter how such measures until refugee reform fully a national much procedural reform is proposed, by becomes law. Their rhetoric is, however, embarrassment questioning the legitimacy of refugee denounced by immigration and refugee claimants, deterring claims through visa advocates as political interference and that revealed requirements, and designating safe as prejudicial to the Immigration and countries, thus pre-empting due process, Refugee Board of Canada, the independ- the Conservatives’ Kenney and Harper have eroded human ent administrative tribunal that high- rights provisions in the immigration and placed officials would normally be “tough generosity.” refugee system. expected to defend rather than under- Therefore, what is presented as “bal- mine. For many, the imposition of visa anced” reform is actually quite funda- requirements was seen simply as a decision. For them, the extension of the mentally biased—Harper and Kenney national embarrassment that revealed protection of the Charter of Rights and will have more discretionary power the Conservatives’ “tough generosity.” Freedoms to refugee claimants resulted while allegedly “safe” refugee claimants in excessive provisions and delays. will have fewer rights. Although discre- Is the Refugee System Hence, following the events of 9/11, Ken- tionary authority has always been part Broken? ney advocated overriding the Singh deci- of the immigration and refugee control Harper and Kenney have both mastered sion and detaining all undocumented regime, this additional discretion inevit- the neoliberal doublespeak, switching arrivals until their identity was verified. ably exerts further political tension on a from pre-emptively identifying bona fide Already then, Kenney defended the need system already subject to neoliberal refugees and criminalizing the others, to for a refugee system that assists “legitim- market efficiencies and exclusionist claiming that the Canadian refugee deter- ate” refugees rather than the assumed policies. In the unstable context of a mination system is generous yet broken. lawbreakers and queue-jumpers. minority government, it might be polit- They contend that the system has been As they did in the United States, the ically less hazardous to blame a few rendered inefficient by the Canadian events of September 2001 provided an refugees for breaking the system than it legislative system, pointing particularly astonishing opportunity and justification is to mend the system. This is particu- to the 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights for conservatives in Canada to conflate larly so when the rhetorical spin benefits and Freedoms and the 1985 Singh v. immigrant/refugee control and security/ from a vigorous narrative in the United Minister of Employment and Immigra- risk management. Under this new regime States of security and the criminalization tion landmark decision by the Supreme of control, immigration and refugee of immigrants. Court. Paradoxically, it was the Singh regulation has been more exclusionist— Moreover, in the current political con- decision that led to the creation of the that is more preoccupied with defining text, where none of the parties dare to current Immigration and Refugee Board who should be allowed into Canada by take a strong position on immigration/ and entitled refugee claimants to an oral keeping out those deemed “undesirable.” refugee policies, the targeting of “ille- hearing in accordance with international gals” and “bogus” claimants as undesir- law. In other words, the Singh decision The Refugee Claimant U-Turn ables that place national institutions and ensured the right of refugee claimants in Nowhere is that exclusionary shift more economies at risk, justifies a wide range Canada to life, liberty, and security of the apparent than in the Balanced Refugee of punitive and pre-emptive actions to person. Reform Act. The problem with minister- mend the “broken system.” Ultimately, Conservative politicians, especially ial power to determine allegedly “safe” such a restrictive approach does not those with roots in the defunct extreme- countries is that such an approach make Canada any safer; it just creates right Reform Party and its successor, the infringes on international law that vulnerability, unpredictability, and inse- Canadian Alliance with Harper and Ken- requires individual (rather than collec- curity, which can later be used to oppor- ney leading the crusade—have consist- tive/national) assessment of protection tunely construct an immigration and ently cried their dislike of the 1985 court needs. By moralizing the politics of risk, refugee crisis.

40 Canada Watch • Spring 2011 Tough on crime, big on prisons

Crime Rates Are Falling By Robert Kellerman metic, intended to allow the Conserva- n order to win support for the “tough Robert Kellerman practised criminal law tives to look tough. Ion crime” agenda, the Conservatives in Toronto. He is a co-founder of the Law However, slowly but surely the law is have to ensure that fear of crime does Union of Ontario and is well known for being changed to undo what the Liberals not wane. However, the rate of violent his work as a social justice . had tried to do in terms of reducing the and non-violent crime has been falling use of imprisonment. The result will be in Canada since the early 1990s. thousands of people unnecessarily , the Minister of Public Harper has followed imprisoned and subjected to the cruelty Safety, announced that unreported crime the example of the of the so-called correctional facilities, or was rising; however, he could not penitentiaries. explain how he had discovered the United States. He has Here are some examples of “tough numbers on unreported crimes. on crime” legislation. A Conservative party supporter, who learned that if you had worked as an adviser to Stockwell Conditional Sentences Day, recently produced a study that wish to pretend to be The conditional sentence was intro- questioned the validity of Statistics Can- tough on crime, duced by the Liberal government in 1992 ada’s findings that crime rates were in order to provide a sentence that was falling. Leading criminologists immedi- it is not necessary to more severe than probation, but less ately denounced the methodology of this severe than imprisonment. An offender study. have the facts or do sentenced to a conditional sentence serves the sentence in the community The US Model proper studies. unless he or she breaches one of the Harper has followed the example of the conditions imposed by the court. The United States. He has learned that if you conditions can be very strict and usually cies. By contrast, Harper plans to pro- wish to pretend to be tough on crime, it contain a period of house arrest as well duce more prisons and more prisoners is not necessary to have the facts or do as a community service order, curfews, to fill them. proper studies. It is only necessary to treatment, etc. A breach of any condition keep promoting the idea that there is a can lead to the judge ordering that the Sten encing Reform Before terrible crime problem and that people offender serve the remainder of the the Conservatives should be scared. This is the soil in sentence in custody. which the United States managed to In Canada, the federal government writes The Harper government has moved grow a prison population of over two criminal law. The former Liberal govern- to restrict the availability of this type of million and achieve first place in the ment had made major changes to the sentence by creating a long list of “world highest rate of incarceration” criminal law aimed at both adults and offences where the conditional sen- contest. This achievement seems to youth. These changes placed a great tences are not an option for the sentenc- impress Stephen Harper, who follows all emphasis on reducing the use of incar- ing judge. the latest ideas developed by the “tough ceration and the use of incarceration on crime” leaders south of the border. reflected more enlightened views about What Is Accomplished by The fact is that states such as Califor- what works and what doesn’t work in These Amendments? nia are facing bankruptcy. They are terms of deterring crime and reforming The clear motive behind the changes realizing that they cannot afford to behaviour. was to cut off the possibility of people imprison so many of their citizens and avoiding imprisonment. Another motive, are finding ways to release prisoners and Imp lementing the though, was to tie the hands of the abandon some “tough on crime” poli- “Tough on Crime” Agenda judges. The Harper government does not The Conservatives have passed many trust most of them. In their view, the Learn more about Canada pieces of “tough on crime” legislation. judges are “soft on crime.” The simple Some of this legislation will have a ser- solution is to remove the discretion of the Watch and the Robarts Centre ious impact on the number of people that judges so that they are forced to sentence for Canadian Studies at will be imprisoned and on the length of people to imprisonment even when they www.yorku.ca/robarts sentences that will be served. Some of feel it is inappropriate to do so. the changes in the law are clearly cos- Tough on crime, big on prisons, page 42

Canada Watch • Spring 2011 41 Tough on crime, big on prisons continued from page 41 The explanation provided by the gov- ernment for severely restricting the avail- In the parliamentary hearings concerning ability of the conditional sentence is that minimum sentences, they heard submissions these offences “deserve jail”—end of story. The effect of this change is that from numerous experts that questioned the more people will be sentenced to impris- onment and the prisons will be more wisdom of such measures, and they ignored crowded. them. The Conservatives have either increased Mandatory Minimum Sentences minimum sentences or created new ones with More than 40 offences now carry a min- imum penalty, and minimum penalties respect to 19 different offences. mean more people go to jail. They remove the discretion of judges to deter- mine the appropriate penalties. Supreme Court of Canada had endorsed the application. If the judge allows the The rationale for mandatory min- the practice as a way of achieving fair- application to go forward, a jury then has imum sentences has usually been that ness in sentencing. The practice was to be satisfied that the prisoner deserves the minimum sentence is necessary to developed to avoid unfairness caused by an opportunity to apply to the parole deter those who might contemplate com- the laws governing parole and the board. It should be clear that prisoners mitting the offence. Criminologists have oppressive conditions faced by those like Paul Bernardo or Clifford Olson done a great deal of work investigating detained in lock-ups awaiting trial. could never dream of using this section, the question of when deterrence works, The government chose not to under- as no judge or jury would possibly look when it does not, and whether increasing stand this rationale, and the Conserva- favourably on their application. penalties for particular types of offences tives once again passed legislation that The government has removed the will make any difference in terms of removed the discretion of judges to hope of all prisoners. This is an example deterrence. In general, mandatory sen- sentence properly. A more honest title of the Conservatives trying to look tough tences do not deter. for this act would have been the “Elimi- but accomplishing nothing except to It is clear that the results of these stud- nating Fairness in Sentencing Act.” deny the possibility that a few individ- ies are not of interest to the Harper gov- uals, having already served 15 years, ernment. In the parliamentary hearings Abolition of the might get the opportunity to persuade a concerning minimum sentences, they Faint Hope Clause judge, then a jury, and then the parole heard submissions from numerous In February of this year, the Conserva- board that they were a changed individ- experts that questioned the wisdom of tives passed legislation designed to ual. Even if granted parole, they would such measures, and they ignored them. abolish the “faint hope clause.” The aptly be supervised for the rest of their lives. The Conservatives have either increased named clause provided only a very faint minimum sentences or created new hope to a person convicted of Why the Opposition Parties ones with respect to 19 different offences. that his or her parole eligibility date might Have Failed be moved forward. The Liberal Party, when last in power, The “Truth in Sentencing” Act Offenders convicted of first-degree had begun to reform the law in order to —The Removal of “Two for One” murder are sentenced to life and cannot rely less on imprisonment. Unfortunately, in Sentencing apply for parole until they have served they and the other parties have been It has been standard practice for judges 25 years. Offenders convicted of second- running scared from the Conservative to grant two days’ credit for each day of degree murder also are sentenced to life Party’s attacks, which paint them as “soft pre-trial custody served by an offender. and may have their parole eligibility date on crime.” Borrowing language from the “tough on set at any number between 10 and 25 The problem for the opposition has crime” movement in the United States, years. The law allowed prisoners to apply been their refusal to unite in opposition the Conservatives moved to eliminate only after they had already served 15 to the Conservatives’ “crime story.” They this long-standing sentencing practice. years. have not dared to unite in a vote against There was no lack of transparency in The application for parole is first the crime bills for fear of triggering an this sentencing practice. The judges were screened by a judge who decides election. They have thus taken turns not doing this in secret and case law whether there is some reasonable pros- supporting the “tough on crime” bills, clearly articulated the rationale. The pect that a jury would look favourably on while allowing the other opposition par-

42 Canada Watch • Spring 2011 ties to oppose the bills and somehow crime and advocated a guaranteed satisfy their more enlightened followers The provinces are annual income as a solution to poverty. that they still have a few principles. pushing the federal It may be a sign that some red Tories are The Conservative “tough on crime” prepared to break ranks with Harper and agenda has run into trouble with the government to pick to speak out against Harper’s agenda. provinces that have already spent billions building more correctional facilities to up some of the tab for More Prisons, More Inmates imprison the growing numbers of prison- the growing prison Still, the federal Conservatives seem ers. In the federal – provincial division of determined to build more prisons regard- powers, the provinces are obliged to population produced less of the cost, even when faced with a imprison all those who are sentenced to massive debt. They refuse to reveal the less than two years. The provinces are by the “tough on projected costs to the opposition, but the pushing the federal government to pick Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates up some of the tab for the growing prison crime” legislation. a price tag of $10 to $13 billion. population produced by the “tough on Recently, there have been encourag- crime” legislation. ing signs that the Liberals will be pre- pared to fight against the “tough on Crime Is a Social Problem tives as “bleeding-heart-liberal, soft on crime” agenda in the next election. Alternative strategies for dealing with the crime” solutions. However, it is telling Should the opposition parties join hands roots of crime, such as poverty reduction, that Conservative senator Hugh Segal in this effort, they may discover that they education, job opportunities, treatment wrote an opinion piece in the Toronto can all benefit by helping the Canadian for mental health problems, treatment for Star (February 20, 2011) in which he public to see the destructive nature of alcohol and drug addictions, early child- argued “to be tough on crime we must the “tough on crime” agenda. Perhaps hood education, and after-school pro- be tough on the causes of crime.” He then a discussion about real solutions to grams, are dismissed by the Conserva- identified poverty as the key cause of criminal behaviour can begin.

The message continued from page 38 so rarely in the past five years that it is tions of democratic government in Can- news when it does happen. This failure The unravelling of ada. The past chicanery of the Liberal to initiate negotiations with the opposi- Party notwithstanding, the Harper revo- tion can be explained, perhaps, by the some key elements lution threatens more than political longer-term goal of changing the polit- of Canadian discourse. ical culture, which would be diluted by compromise and confidence in the gov- parliamentary A Democratic Audit ernment’s capacity to control public The unravelling of some key elements discourse. democracy may of Canadian parliamentary democracy The government has relied on its cap- may require more than a change of heart acity to set the agenda for public discus- require more than or a change of government to fix. When sion and to influence the terms in which a change of heart a convention is violated and the public even media criticism has been framed. acquiesces, the convention itself may Only time will tell whether or not the or a change of well have changed. Where there is a goals of supplanting the Liberals as the strong public backlash, a subsequent natural governing party and recalibrating government to fix. government may be motivated to Canadian political culture to a more enshrine the rule in law or regulation. right-wing value system will succeed. A Once abrogated, it is unlikely that a Focus Canada poll, reported by Jeffrey convention will be complied with in the Simpson in on Febru- Since the hostile takeover of the Pro- absence of a legal sanction. The develop- ary 4, 2011, found the welfare state con- gressive Conservative Party, Canadian ments briefly outlined here make the sensus holding across a wide range of political discourse has been marked by case for a democratic audit to review the specific values and policies, though a a notable disrespect not only for oppo- entire range of Canadian institutions and slight majority were satisfied with the nents and the long-standing welfare state practices and to consider formalizing general direction of government policy. consensus, but also for the very institu- key elements of the system.

Canada Watch • Spring 2011 43 For past issues of Canada Watch visit Robarts Centre’s website: www.yorku.ca/robarts

For the Robarts Annual Lectures visit Robarts Centre’s website: www.yorku.ca/robarts