Tory Woes

Oh Stephen Harper, what have you done? It is only the first week of your government and already you have reneged on popular and intelligent campaign promises. You told us your government would be different, that you would not tolerate the same antics that defined the 12 years of Liberal hegemony. Instead, the appointments of David Emerson, Michael Fortier, and to a lesser extent Gordon O’Connor represent a breach of the public’s trust.

At first glance, Stephen Harper’s decisions make absolutely sound political sense. The Conservatives were shut out of Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. The Tories have enough MPs surrounding Toronto that can represent the city’s interests, but that situation is not exactly true in regards to Montreal and Vancouver. This explains the appointment of Mr. Emerson, a Liberal turncoat from Vancouver and Mr. Fortier, an unelected Conservative from Montreal. The biggest problem facing the Conservatives is a complete lack of experience. Many Tories today remember the disastrous government of Joe Clark that fell just nine months after election due to the fact that his rookie government was unable to resist the tide of a resurgent Trudeau. Most of the new Cabinet Ministers, indeed the entire Tory Caucus, suffer from a critical lack of experience. The most experienced member of the new Cabinet is probably the eccentric Stockwell Day, who served as a provincial Minister in Alberta for a number of years. John Baird and Tony Clement have also had long careers at the senior levels of provincial politics and their expertise will be essential. However, at the federal level, most of the new Conservative Cabinet members lack any sort of familiarity with the upper echelons of power. David Emerson is the new Minister of International Trade and has that sorely needed experience, which was attained through his tenure as Industry Minister under the now fallen Liberal government of Paul Martin. He is also a very powerful man, with many contacts spread throughout the North American lumber industry. This in part explains his appointment; he may be the best hope for resolving the softwood lumber dispute with the U.S. once and for all. Mr. Fortier is a finance geek with the intelligence and drive to wrap his head around the Public Works portfolio. Gordon O’Connor, the new Defense Minister spent most of his life in the Canadian Forces and retired as a Brigadier-General. Unlike many previous heads of the Defense portfolio, Mr. O’Connor will actually know what he is doing.

However, Prime Minister Harper has clearly made some potentially harmful mistakes in appointing these three individuals. After the defection of Belinda Stronach to the Liberals in May of 2005, dozens of Conservative MP’s supported a bill that would require floor-crossers to seek an immediate by-election. Stephen Harper, rightly so, joined in and raged against the inappropriate and unforgivably ambitious action of Miss Stronach, although he did not support the by-election bill himself. By accepting the former Liberal David Emerson into his Cabinet, the Prime Minister now looks to be just as hypocritical as any other previous Prime Minster, no matter how logical the appointment seems to be. In addition, the “Honorable” Mr. Emerson is a hopeless opportunist; his constituency is overwhelmingly Liberal and his voters contributed hundreds of volunteer hours and nearly $100,000 to his election campaign, only to see their representative betray their political beliefs. That is not democracy. In regards to Michael Fortier the PM and the Conservative Party as a whole consistently said during the election that any Cabinet members in a Conservative government would have to be elected. Mr. Fortier does not hold a seat in the House of Commons, although he will seek one during the next Federal Election. On top of all that, Mr. Fortier is being appointed to the Senate, despite the Conservative policy of reforming the Senate along more democratic lines.

Gordon O’Connor at first glance seems like the perfect choice for the Minister of National Defense. However, he served for years as a lobbyist for some of the biggest and powerful defense firms in the world. Although the Conservatives wish to ban government officials from lobbying for five years after they leave public service, a lobbyist entering the government is not a big deal. He severed his professional links with his former employers two years ago upon election to Parliament and he does not likely suffer from a conflict of interest. Still, his selection did raise some eyebrows. The most pressing concern about O’Connor however is not his lobbying past, but his current views on the Chief of the Defense Staff. General Rick Hiller is the most popular CDS in decades, both within the military and the Canadian public at large. Mr. O’Connor has criticized General Hiller in the past and there are fears Hiller may be sacked.

So what can the Prime Minister and the Tories do to contain this mess? First, they have to make it clear to the electorate that the Cabinet decisions were necessary. As I’ve already argued, they are quite logical. The Tories will also have to control internal dissent over the appointments of Fortier and Emerson, or risk a schism in the Party itself. Thirdly, the Prime Minister must move quickly to implement his five main priorities of government accountability, GST cuts, a tougher justice system, the fiscal imbalance with the provinces and of course the new child care plan. These measures, with the exception of the child care changes, enjoy wide support throughout Canada. The Tories will find support from the other parties on all their proposals excluding child care revamps, which is not supported by all three of the opposition parties and all of the Provincial governments. Contrary to many beliefs, the Senate will not a be a barrier to Tory power; the Canadian people have given the Conservatives a mandate, and the Senate serves the interests of the people. Lastly, the Tories must prove they are indeed different and that change will be good for Canada. How they will do that however is still not clear