Canadian Democracy Deserves Better Opposition Than Mr. Dion

October 17th, 2007

The impossible has happened. Editorial columnists, political analysts, Conservatives, New Democrats, the Green Party, the Bloc Quebecois and yes, even the majority of Liberals, are finally united on an issue. Stéphane Dion’s actions and behaviour in response to the Speech from the Throne are astoundingly hypocritical and depraved.

The unprincipled and erratic way Mr. Dion went about arriving at his response to our Conservative Government’s Throne Speech is a disservice to Canadian democracy, which deserves a strong and credible official opposition.

For almost a full day Mr. Dion would offer no opinion on the speech to either the Canadian public or his own Liberal caucus. Then he spent over a half-hour in the House of Commons in a meandering, combative diatribe, declaring the speech an abysmal offensive agenda. Plus, he moved a four-part amendment of non-confidence in the speech … BUT, he declared he would let it pass, thereby avoiding an election and his own certain political demise.

In contrast, as leader of the Official Opposition in 2005, Stephen Harper responded decisively and immediately after Paul Martin’s budget was delivered, saying that, on balance, it wasn’t bad enough to bring down the government and send Canadians to the polls for a second time in less than a year.

Mr. Dion has reinforced his hypocrisy and confounded his own party. It’s incomprehensible that he so vehemently disagrees with our entire Throne Speech yet will still let it pass.

Regardless, it’s good news that taxpayers will not incur the cost of an unnecessary election. Our Conservative Government is eager to move forward with the strong message and agenda contained within our Speech from the Throne.

The Government’s core priorities in the coming months are: strengthening Canada’s sovereignty and its place in the world; protecting our environment and the health of Canadians; steering our economy toward long-term prosperity; modernizing our federal and democratic institutions; and making our streets and communities safer.

We’ll push ahead with democratically-elected Senators, senate term limits and scrapping the long-gun registry. We’ll stick to our environmental targets, which are among the most aggressive in the world. We’ll continue to rapidly pay down our nation’s debt and cut taxes, including a further reduction to the GST.

We’ve already introduced a single Bill, C-2, comprised of six bills that the opposition-controlled committees or the unelected Liberal majority in the Senate blocked or gutted in the last session. This includes mandatory prison time for serious gun crimes, bail reform, raising the age of consent to protect our children from sexual predators, cracking down on drug and alcohol impaired driving and tougher monitoring and consequences for high-risk and repeat offenders.

Furthermore, we will not allow Mr. Dion to prolong his own political life in allowing the Throne Speech to pass, only to turn around and once again block the changes Canadians are asking for. Therefore, our justice legislation will be a question of confidence in our government. If the opposition parties vote down this bill, they will bring down our government and prompt a general election.

As the Prime Minister stated earlier this month, “It’s time for the opposition parties to fish or cut bait”.