I woke up last Saturday morning to the news that Stéphane Dion, if elected Canada’s prime minister, would offer an official apology in the House of Commons for the 1914 Komagata Maru incident, in which 376 Punjabis were held on that ship off Vancouver harbour for two months before eventually being denied permission to enter Canada by the Conservative government of the day. That Dion — and presumably the Liberal party’s brains trust — chose to end their campaign’s first week on this note is a sign of how dire, shallow and utterly pointless this election is going to be.
The subtext to Dion’s promise, of course, is that Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered only an unofficial apology while he attended a Sikh festival in Surrey, B.C. last month, which was unacceptable to many of those present.
Yet as Canada struggles to find a new role in the post-Cold War, post-9/11 world; as its economy teeters nervously on the brink of collapse, buoyed only by high world prices for various natural resources; as it stares down the barrel of an aging population that incrementally places ever more pressure on an outdated national health system; as its numbers of homeless and poor continue to rise, victims in part of the neo-con dismantling of public institutions, aid and assistance; and as global warming steadily promises to one day turn Canada into the Arizona of the north… well, is an apology to victims who are no longer here to receive it really the most pressing electoral issue that faces us in 2008?
It’s not all — or even mainly — Dion’s fault. After all, this election — this illegal election —has been called solely on Harper’s whim. His claim that Parliament had become dysfunctional is laughable. For two-and-a-half years, he ruled over Canada’s longest ever minority government much as more fortunate predecessors have governed with rock-solid majorities. Knowing that neither Dion nor the NDP’s Jack Layton were ready for another early contest after the Conservatives’ narrow win in January 2006, Harper has consistently out-bluffed all opposition parties by challenging them to bring his government down on any number of confidence votes. They declined, with saddening predictability, thereby reducing their own credibility and, by default, elevating Harper’s.
Even a cursory look at the Conservatives’ record in power belies Harper’s claim to Parliament’s dysfunctionality. Whatever they really wanted, they got. And even as he left the Governor General’s residence with the dissolution he had requested, Harper insisted that he had neither any “big plans” to take to the Canadian electorate nor any real prospect of winning a majority. In short, he launched a new election for no obvious reason.
This has caused Harper a few problems in the first week of the campaign. Lacking a clear goal or purpose, he’s adopted a three-prong thrust to convince Canadians they should renew and/or increase their faith in him because: The Liberals under Dion can’t be trusted, are too risky; Harper has done a good job of running the country so far, so why not more of the same?; and Harper is a “family guy.” Each of these seems, so far, to be gaining some traction, but on closer — heck, any — examination, each claim only underlines how pointless this election is.
First, repeating ad nauseum that Dion’s policies (notably his Green Shift and promised carbon tax) are too risky “at the present time” (this qualifier is always and carefully added to Conservative critiques, thus at least begging the question if these measures might be appropriate at some point) is not the same as demonstrating why they won’t work. I’ve no idea whether Dion’s proposals are economical, but for heaven’s sake, let’s have an adult debate of their merits and flaws to see if (and how) they might actually add up to something. If Harper is right, then it shouldn’t be too hard for him to demonstrate why.
Second, as an opponent of “big government,” it’s amazing that Harper now falls back on the notion that he and his faceless cabinet somehow have been “running the country.” For the past two years, we’ve been running ourselves more or less without any help or hindrance from Harper.
Third, I’ve no idea whether or not Harper is a good dad or a family guy. All I do know is that such attributes, if genuine, should be apparent and not require carefully crafted two-minute ads to convince me. As well, this has little or nothing to do with an individual’s ability to run the nation. Give me an arse-smacking SOB any day of the week, as long as he or she manifestly gets the job of governance done well.
This brings us back to Dion, unfortunately, who so far has countered Poppa Harper’s rebranding of himself with his own attempts to appear as a good dad and overall sportsman-about-town. This would be fine if we were electing him, say, to run a community Block Watch, but as we’re supposed to be deciding who’s most fit to run the country, the relevance of all this one-up-dadship is beyond me.
Here we are, three weeks from anointing a new government. If Harper wins another minority government, then it’s more of the same until such time as he chooses to call a further election. If he wins a majority, then he carries on more or less as he has for the past two-and-a-half years, likely facing either Bob Rae of Michael Ignatieff across the floor. If by chance Dion wins, it’ll be despite and not because of his “risky” environmental program, which will doubtless get watered down and delayed until it’s meaningless.
With apologies to those who’ve fought the cause of the Komagata Maru, there’s so much more to be sorry for.
David Bright has published widely on Canadian social, labour and criminal justice history. He teaches history and politics at Niagara College, Ontario.
