The Canadian Federal Election 2008: What happened?

Few people I know expected much would change as the result of an election called in Sept. by conservative Prime Minister Stephan Harper. Indeed, little has changed except the Liberal party has been decimated and their leader, Stephan Dion, has been forced to resign. What happened?
Dion is to be commended for being upfront with Canadians and telling us we must seriously address the threat of climate change and environmental threat. Unfortunately, the campaign message was somewhat like Operation Market Garden in WWII – simply a bridge too far. The green shift program was not explained to individual Canadians in terms of what it would actually cost the nation collectively, and what it would cost the individual family. I pointed this fact out in August, well before the campaign, to a Liberal candidate who later ran and lost. Telling people to go to the green shift website for details is simply not good enough.
For his part, the prime Minister almost pulled off a majority government. His over-control of the campaign itself, gaffes by his ministers, and questions raised about Harper’s integrity after a staffer was found to have lifted speech material from the Australian PM several years ago caused the Tories to snatch minority from the jaws of majority. Canadians continue to be nervous of giving Harper a majority because they suspect a hidden reform agenda and I concur with these concerns.
The Green party elicited a lot of excitement but unless the country moves to a proportional representation system, the Greens will likely never be more than a fringe party. For her part, Canadians like green leader Elizabeth May but she continues to insist, for personal reasons, in running against deputy pm Peter MacKay in Central Nova in Nova Scotia. She needs to get herself a seat in the House of Commons - we need her voice there. The reality is she to accomplish this, she needs to parachute into a winnable riding. She did well in the national televised debate. Unfortunately, the greens lost their only seat in the house briefly held by a back-bencher from B.C. Elizabeth May has squandered a brief window of opportunity to keep a toe hold in parliament for her party.
Jack Layton did well for the NDP gaining twenty-some seats. Unfortunately history shows the NDP will never become more than a third party. An informal coalition of the Liberals and NDP will be needed in parliament to keep the conservatives under control but they cannot obstruct parliament too much. At the same time, they can’t be seen to be playing politics supporting Harper’s government.
In the end, Canada’s federal government will carry on much the same as it has for the past three years. The conservatives cannot push through their quasi-reform agenda and will have to provide a caretaker administration. To be fair, Stephan Harper has done a passable job over the past three years as a caretaker pm.
The Liberals will be lame ducks for the next year until they select a new leader. Keeping the knives away, whoever wins, will be critical but don’t hold your breath. The Liberals have a lot of wannabe pm’s in their midst that have a vested interest in back-room intrigue. The party’s treatment of Stephan Dion as leader was frankly disgraceful. He is a decent, intelligent man who could have done much to help Canada.
The state of the world economy has shaken Canada, although less so than other places. Still, governments will have to deal with much reduced income and higher costs.
It will be an interesting few years. Canadians expect parliamentarians to get to work and will have little patience for any party dragging us into another election in less than three years. They would prefer their parliamentarians work together for four years before taking another kick at the electoral can.

Malcolm Watts BA MSW
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