Parliament needs leadership, not partisanship
The sensational story of Foreign Affairs Minister, Maxime Bernier’s resignation makes good copy. However, the central issue in the Bernier fiasco is not that a Canadian Foreign Minister left sensitive documents in the possession of a former girlfriend or that girlfriend’s sensational past.
The real issues of importance to Canadians is that Prime Minister Harper appointed someone without any experience or apparent interest in an exceedingly important and difficult portfolio, and the narrow, parochial approach our “new Conservative Government” brings to foreign affairs.
Mr. Bernier is not the first casualty of this tactic. Prime Minister Harper has a habit of deliberately placing Members of his caucus into cabinet portfolios they are ill suited to address. By appointing a person who does not have any real experience in a particular portfolio, someone who does not know and may not be interested in the files Mr. Harper can control theses ministers and their ministries through his office. Who can forget the case of Rona Ambrose? Ms. Ambrose is an intelligent (tri-lingual), personable and articulate individual who was appointed to be the Minister for the Environment (a subject she knows little about). This occurred at a time when the Conservatives were still climate change deniers, preferring to follow ideology instead of the facts. Into this untenable position was sent Ms. Ambrose. Predictably she was fired for her being unable to sell an utterly untenable position. Not her position but the Prime Minister’s. She now languishes in the ministerial backwater of Intergovernmental Affairs and Western Diversification. Much like Mr. Bernier, Ms. Ambrose was set up for failure. She lost her post as Minister of the Environment not for her personal judgment or failures, but for those failures that were directed by the Prime Minister and his PMO.
The general modus operandi of the Prime Minister is for him to make positive announcements and funnel bad news and uncertain policies through his ministers. However, if the wheels come off the policy, ministers take the fall leaving the Prime Minister unscathed. Mr. Harper uses his ministers as scapegoats, mere canon fodder in the political game. He has never demonstrated any interest in capitalizing on their talents or their ideas.
The tragedy of this situation is one of lost opportunities being trumped by political manipulation. Our nation is one of great minds and great ideas. A responsible government should utilize their MPs, their ministers, other MPs, the civil service, the private sector and academia to tap into their innovative ideas and enable them to come to life. In the case of foreign affairs, Canada is well suited to play an extremely important role in addressing the enormous challenges that plague our planet; uplifting the 2.5-billion people who live on less than $2 a day; the food crisis; human security, conflict prevention, and environmental challenges. Sadly, Mr. Harper has repeatedly failed to exert leadership in these areas.
Unbelievably, Canada’s “New Government” has attempted to stop an international emergency meeting on the food crisis; is obstructing the international campaign to ban the use of cluster munitions; and has failed to even attempt to get a seat at the powerful UN Security Council. Why is Canada acting like a Johnny come lately on the humanitarian crises in Burma, Gaza and China? Why are we missing in action in dealing with the horrific catastrophes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe and Sudan? Why has the government not released, as they promised, their own vision for international affairs and international development? Why is this government failing to address the very real challenges facing the world including the prevention of deadly conflict, removing international barriers to trade, tackling endemic corruption and addressing the environmental degradation that hangs like a rock around the necks of the poorest 2-billion citizens of our planet?
Prime Minister Harper is a Canadian Prime Minister. He should see the potential and the opportunities that lie before us and the enormous leadership that we as a nation can exercise. A measure of whether Mr. Harper embraces Canada’s great potential will be seen in his choice for Mr. Bernier’s replacement in the foreign affairs portfolio and what his government does to address the great challenges before us as citizens of the one race that unites us all—the human race.
- Keith
Parliament needs leadership, not partisanship
3 Responses to “Parliament needs leadership, not partisanship”
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August 22nd, 2008 at 11:33 am
Shows Harper is a really bad manager. A good manager inspires others, encourages and nurtures subordinates to one day take over the reigns. But the way Harper is, his party is doomed to fail when he goes, so he can say ‘Look how good I was’. It is a technique used by paranoid dictators and oligarchs.
When will his MPs revolt?
August 26th, 2008 at 10:05 am
“The general modus operandi of the Prime Minister is for him to make positive announcements and funnel bad news and uncertain policies through his ministers. However, if the wheels come off the policy, ministers take the fall leaving the Prime Minister unscathed. Mr. Harper uses his ministers as scapegoats, mere canon fodder in the political game. He has never demonstrated any interest in capitalizing on their talents or their ideas.”
I’m reminded of the 5th century Athenian statesman Pericles, who, although he was the leader of the great Greek city during its ‘golden age’ and brought many improvements and important laws to the city, was also (some would argue) responsible for its ultimate loss to Sparta during the Peloponnesian War. Pericles refused to alter his war strategies, which turned out to be quite ill-planned and resulted in a plague throughout the whole city of Athens.
More generally, he wooed the Athenians with promises of opulent festivals, public land, a more even distribution of wealth, and tax plans that would get money from more wealthy citizens. All the while, he was becoming more of a dictator and less of a leader of a democracy (technically, he was the ’strategos’, kind of the chief general). Some ancient sources, like Thucydides, praised him for being charismatic and manipulative, but others, like Plato, pointed out his tendency to put on a good public face while simultaneously turning the Athenian people into ill-prepared, avaricious sloths.
Are we witnessing this metamorphosis in our Prime Minister right now?
September 4th, 2008 at 3:15 pm
I don’t like Harper. He’s too mechanical and looks like he can’t be trusted.