An article by a conservative columnists,
LORRIE GOLDSTEIN
Both Liberals and Tories have bargained for power: Goldstein
In politics, everybody deals
The relevant question to ask Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff in the election isn’t whether he’s prepared to form a coalition government if neither the Liberals nor Conservatives win a majority of seats.
It’s how many New Democrat MPs is he willing to put in his cabinet and in what jobs?
Following the 2008 vote, which elected a Conservative minority government, then-Liberal leader Stephane Dion announced in a deal initially supported by Ignatieff, that he was ready to form a coalition government, backed by the Bloc Quebecois, and led by a 24-member cabinet.
In that cabinet, six portfolios — excluding finance — would have gone to the NDP, with the New Democrats also naming six parliamentary secretaries.
On Saturday, Ignatieff said he won't follow Dion’s lead by trying to form a coalition government. But that's what Dion said before he did it, so it comes down to an issue of trust.
That said, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s allegation that such a coalition would be undemocratic is silly.
While it might be controversial with voters — depending on how the parties fare on election day — there’s nothing unconstitutional or undemocratic about such a deal.
Indeed, it’s really only on the issue of cabinet seats that the Conservatives and Liberals disagree (or, rather, have disagreed in the past) when it comes to the question of governing in a minority parliament.
After all, Harper was ready to form a minority government with himself as prime minister, backed by the NDP and Bloc, following the 2004 election, in the event the then-Liberal minority government of Paul Martin lost an early confidence vote in the House.
Harper said as much in a Sept. 9, 2004 letter to then-gov. gen. Adrienne Clarkson signed by him, NDP Leader Jack Layton and Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe.
Harper also gave an interview to the CBC at the time in which he made it clear he was willing to work co-operatively with the NDP and Bloc, although he stopped short of a formal coalition deal in which any other party would have seats at the cabinet table.
While Harper can thus justifiably argue he has never proposed a coalition similar to the aborted Liberal/NDP one backed by the Bloc in 2008, he isn’t justified in portraying Ignatieff as a power-mad opportunist willing to cut deals with socialists and separatists to grab power.
In fact, cutting deals with socialists and/or separatists is a necessity for any governing party in a Canadian minority parliament.
Indeed, both the Conservatives under Harper and before them, the Liberals under Martin, did it all the time.
Dion tried and failed in 2008 only because Harper was able to convince then gov.-gen Michaelle Jean to prorogue Parliament before the Liberal/NDP, Bloc-backed coalition was able to bring down his government on a confidence motion.
The reality is a minority parliament can’t function without strategic co-operation between the government and at least one or two opposition parties, depending on the seat counts coming out of any election that fails to deliver a majority government.
Besides, coalitions, or quasi-coalitions, don’t have to share seats in cabinet in order to be effective.
The Liberal and NDP parties in Ontario in 1985 agreed to a specific legislative agenda instead, following that year’s provincial election.
This resulted in a Liberal minority government led by David Peterson, backed by the NDP, driving the Tories out of power after 42 consecutive years in office, even though the Tories technically “won” the election, winning 52 seats to the Liberals’ 48.
Rather than give the NDP cabinet seats, Peterson became premier by signing a written accord of legislative accomplishments the Liberals and NDP agreed to pass within the following two years.
Representing the NDP in those negotiations was, ironically, then-party leader Bob Rae, who, in 1990, went on to become the NDP premier of Ontario. Today, he’s a Liberal MP.
All of which simply underscores the fact that politics makes for very strange bedfellows.
