My Log 338 Jan 25 2013: Getting Rid of Harper: 2: Combining the anti-Harper forces

English: Stephen Harper, despotic ruler of Canada and Borg Centurion, assimilating resistors. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Effigy of Prime Minister Stephen Harper at the Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament protest on Parliament Hill. Ottawa, Canada. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 Ever since I have been a sentient being I have been a Labour Party guy. That is, politically I have always been on the left, supporting  working class politics,  unions and unionism, and public ownership, which has gone along with being death on Conservatives, Liberals, and all their status quo supporting ilk.

I have never voted for a Liberal or Conservative, and have vowed I never would. But the current condition of the country surely must prompt everyone to reconsider what would be the best way forward, and I have come to the conclusion that the first step forward must be to get rid of Stephen Harper and his appalling government.

You can imagine, I hope, how reluctantly I am dragging these words out of myself.

But the situation demands it; the facts dictate it.

Just look at the figures for the three elections that have resulted in the elevation of this Conservative party to government.

First, 2006:

* 23,054,000 voters, 23 per cent of whom cast their votes for Stephen Harper and his crowd.

*14,374,000 people voted, and of these 36.3 per cent, or 5,374,000 voted pro-Harper.

*The combined vote of the Liberals, NDP and the Green  parties, not to mention the many other voters who were anti-Harper, was 7,733,000, or 52.2 per cent, a majority over Harper’s total of 16 per cent.

* In other words 2.4 million more people voted for these three parties than for the Conservatives. 

*Result, following the habit in Canada’s past, the Conservatives formed a minority government.

Second, 2008

*23,677,000 voters, of whom 22 per cent voted for Harper.

*13,929,000 cast ballots, and of these 5,209,000 or 37.7 per cent voted for Harper

* The combined vote of NDP, Liberals and Greens was 7,086,000, or 51.4 per cent, a majority over the Harper vote of  13.7 per cent.

*So, 1,877,000 more people voted for these three parties than for Harper.

*Result, following the habit of Canada’s past, the Conservatives formed a minority government.

Third, 2011

*24,257,000 registered voters of whom 24 per cent cast their votes for Harper.

* 14,823,000 cast their ballots, and of these 5,835,000 voted for Harper, or 39.6 per cent.

*The combined vote of the NDP, Liberals and Greens was 7,867,000, or 53.4 per cent of the votes cast.

* So, 2,032,000 more people voted for these three parties than for Harper.

*Result: although still supported by a small percentage of the total voters, Harper got to form a majority government, from which the country is already suffering massively, with more blows promised.

In each of these years, the plurality of Canadians supporting the three opposition parties has so far exceeded that of the governing party that it would, normally, be described as a landslide vote against the government.

These facts surely speak for themselves. Although it cannot be supposed that if some sort of electoral arrangement were concluded between the three parties in question every vote would be cast as in the past, surely the expectation has to be that such an arrangement would lead to a change in government for the better.

It seems, therefore, to rest in the hands of the leaders of these three parties as to whether they are ready to subordinate the interests of their respective parties in the interests of the nation as a whole.

They had the opportunity once before when the NDP and Liberals declared their willingness to work together to overthrow the government, and, with the support of the then-powerful Bloc Quebecois, to form a government.

Unfortuantely, at that point the Liberals decided to overthrow their leader Stephan Dion with Michael Ignatieff, who had so little stomach for the political race that he rejected the Prime Ministership thus offered to him, and declared the coalition proposal null and void.

The folly of this decision is now clear to everyone. Fortunately Ignatieff is no longer with us, politically speaking.

With the coming election of his successor, the Liberals and NDP should be in a position to enter another such agreement behind a platform that would evidently, be headed by a promise from their coalition or partnership, of electoral reform in the direction of proportional representation.

This is the form of government that is used in most democracies in the modern world, except for Britain, the United States and Canada.

It surely cannot be long delayed in Canada, for it would provide the ideal solution to the current sclerotic voting patterns that have served only to divide the country.

Everyone must remember the days when the Liberals, though winning 25 per cent of the vote in Western Canada, managed to elect only one member west of Winnipeg. Similar results have occurred in provincial elections --- for example, in the first years of the Parti Quebecois in Quebec, that party won more than 20 per cent of the vote and elected almost no members.

So, Mr, Mulcair Ms May, and Mr X, whoever you are likely to be --- time for you to get your thinking caps on, to work out a common platform and establish the electoral act that would sweep this benighted government out, once and for all. You owe it to the nation to do this.

Next: To the NDP faithful: arguments in favour of the recommended course of action.