Submitted by Ralph Goodale, Liberal MP for Regina Wascana Constituency
With a rash of bad news about the Canadian economy falling into a second recession and Stephen Harper’s deficit not, in fact, being eliminated, and with Senator Mike Duffy’s criminal trial on 31 charges of fraud, bribery and breach of trust resuming in a couple of weeks — it was entirely predictable that Mr. Harper would try some stunt to divert attention.
So last Friday, he trotted out the notion that he has placed a moratorium on any new appointments to the Senate. Vacancies will continue to accumulate. The Senate will eventually become dysfunctional. And somehow, he says, that will force the premiers to come up with some plan to either fix it or abolish it.
The goofiness of this idea prompted a quick chorus of critical commentaries.
Many experts noted that Mr. Harper’s plan was unprincipled and likely unconstitutional, just like all of his previous schemes to deal with the Senate. Some reminded us that Mr. Harper already made that solemn promise not to appoint senators, only to violate that pledge and appoint 59 of them (the largest number in history, including the biggest ethical culprits).
And far from putting pressure on the premiers, Mr. Harper’s abandonment of his duty to deal with vacancies that would first affect the federal government, because no federal legislation whatsoever can be enacted without passage through the Senate.
That’s where this pointless diversion should end. Stephen Harper would like nothing better than to see Canadians race down some silly rabbit hole of all-absorbing constitutional debates about the Senate.
So preoccupied, we might not focus as much on the looming court testimony of Mr. Harper’s former chief-of-staff — about his secret $90,000 payment to Senator Duffy, the meddling of the Prime Minister’s Office in a forensic audit, and the plans to cover it up.
Far from being distracted, we should find out why Mr. Harper famously described Mike Duffy as the best Senate appointment he ever made? What criteria informed that judgment? And, how could this serious scandal consume the full attention of a vast number of people in Mr. Harper’s office and inner-circle for months on end, right under his nose, and he didn’t notice or bother to inquire?
And, most importantly, the economy needs Canadians’ undiluted attention.
The country has just suffered through a second recession on Mr. Harper’s watch. The economy is severely under-performing. The growth rate is the worst in 80 years.
Business investment is down. This government has recorded more than 50 months of chronic trade deficits, including every month so far this year and the biggest shortfalls in history.
Employment is weak, job quality is low. Incomes are stagnant. Household debt is near record highs. The future for young Canadians is more clouded than ever.
Mr. Harper proclaimed a surplus federal budget in 2015, but that’s turning into fiction. To concoct his so-called surplus, he assumed an annual economic growth rte of two per cent, but the Bank of Canada says we’ll be lucky to reach half that. And, the Parliamentary Budget Officer says with growth cut in half, the government must be running a deficit, not a surplus.
Canadians cannot afford to be diverted down Mr. Harper’s rabbit holes — not when the ethical conduct of his government is in tatters, and our growth-less economy teeters on the edge of recession.
