Way back, at a time when Canadians had majority governments, incumbent Paul Martin campaigned for prime minister, not on the basis of his credentials, but on a platform that then-Opposition leader Stephen Harper had a “hidden agenda.”
The ruse didn’t work, not because of suspicions over Harper’s agenda — which was indeed not known — but because the Liberal agenda was altogether too well known. The legacy of federal Liberal Party corruption in office under Jean Chretien haunts them to this day.
It’s taken a long time to discover it, but Stephen Harper’s hidden agenda is becoming clear. We see now that Harper doesn’t really want to be Prime Minister of Canada after all; what he really wants is to be president. What’s more, leaders in the provinces — particularly in Harper’s home province of Alberta — want the same thing.
Parliamentary democracy is too slow, too cumbersome, too noisy and too accountable for a real leader. Real leaders want real power, the kind that makes sure you never have to say you’re sorry. And we are seeing that you can achieve that with an overwhelming legislative majority (as in Alberta), or even with a minority (as in Ottawa) — as long as voters don’t give a rip that they no longer have their rights under law.
If the voters don’t ultimately control the government, if Parliament or the legislature cannot decide what is or is not done by government, we are operating under a presidential system, where one leader controls everything.
In Ottawa, a parliamentary commission is demanding — demanding — that the government show them the paper trail covering the fate of prisoners captured by Canadian forces in Afghanistan. The government is telling them to bugger off.
Government lawyer Alain Prefontaine told the commission last week: “the documents will be given to your counsel when they are good and ready.”
He later apologized for saying that. After all, the papers do belong to Parliament. But they won’t be shown to Parliament, even to a small commission of Parliament, until they are good and ready.
Which won’t be until Stephen Harper is assured nobody remembers why they were demanded in the first place.
This is a watershed moment. Until now, the prime minister was a servant of Parliament. That is why we call the position “prime minister.”
If Parliament cannot force Harper to do its will, Parliament becomes the servant of the president.
In Alberta, the government doesn’t bother with the legislature all that much. Our legislature — which closed after 30 days of work last week. We’ll see them back in the house when Premier Ed Stelmach is good and ready to call them.
Once the budget is passed every year, Stelmach is free to do as he chooses. He can spend billions of tax dollars without a legislative vote, through orders in council.
In his final years in office, that’s pretty well what Ralph Klein lived on. He deliberately lowballed provincial revenues for years, so he could spend the “surplus” without consulting the legislature.
We’ve also seen that the government can reverse course 180 degrees from its stated agenda, without the burden of consulting anyone who votes. Oil and gas royalty schemes get changed with the phases of the moon. Foster care funding is cut, then it’s on again. Mental health patients are to be taken from their hospital beds and put into community programs — or not. School boards are told they will get no money to cover a rise in teacher salaries — but then the cheques are produced.
The process of presidential politics has hollowed out our parliamentary democracy. Next, we’ll have the Mandate of Heaven. Just remember when they hand Harper his crown, that Alberta got there first.
Greg Neiman is an Advocate editor.