Damage Done

It's been a hell of a week. There's been a lot of damage - the most important instance being, of course, Her Excellency the Governor-General's choice to prorogue parliament effective immediately, rather than awaiting Monday's (now cancelled) confidence vote. This is an absolutely terrifying precedent; Stephen Harper and Michaëlle-Jean have essentially established that any Prime Minister faced with a sure-loss confidence vote can go ahead and ask for a prorogation and avoid the hammer of the House's voice - at least for a time.

Harper will face the same problems he left the parliament with when it reconvenes on January 26th. The coalition may not survive until that date, but Harper has lost the confidence of our elected officials. They will not forgive him and he needs to resign. Canadians will not forgive him - or, at the very least, if they do, Québecois will not. The Conservatives will deliver a budget more quickly than the coalition could and for that I support their mandate to govern. However, it is my sincere belief that Stephen Harper must resign.

Not just because he's lost the confidence of the house, but because his treatment of the bloc during this crisis was shameful. I've stated before that attacking the bloc's legitimacy attacks the legitimacy of the whole French-Canadian franchise, it accuses Québecois who want their own country of being anti-Canadian in a way that is patently false and stirs up a unity crisis in the middle of a constitutional crisis and an economic crisis. It is a third crisis we simply do not need!

Bloc MPs are elected just as legitimately as their conservative, liberal and NDP counterparts - in many cases, they're more legitimately elected than their counterparts, as they often garner real majorities in their ridings, rather than mere pluralities. For some reason, the Right Honourable Stephen Harper is unable to accept them as fellow Members of Parliament with the same democratic authority as his own duly elected and Right Honourable Albertan ass. Such discrimination in parliament is just as dangerous as his prorogation precedent.

That dangerous precedent was accompanied by a litany of lies from his Right Honourableness; his claim that the Bloc Québécois' interests lie in the destruction of Canada are patently false! In fact, for a separate and prosperous Québec to exist, a strong, economically independent Canada would have to exist and continue to exist. It is intrinsic to any sovereignist option to prop up and improve Canada in every possible way. In that sense, there is nobody in parliament I would trust more to ensure the stability of either a coalition government or a revitalized conservative one.

And these facts were not lost on the Bloc, the PC, Québec Solidaire or any of the Sovereignist parties - the work done by the Liberals and Conservatives over the last thirteen years, placating Québec and solidifying a United Canada may aswell be flushed down the toilet. Stephen Harper threw it away to save his political career.

Mr. Harper, please step down.