Pre-Game Action Before Your Olympics, Perhaps?

Yes, nice fun ReformaTory Games only Stevie can play, although, thus far he hasn’t been successful, has he?

Haiti became the would be perfect crisis for him but, obviously never raised his numbers, in fact, according to most polls as of late, Stevie’s Harpercon numbers continue on that downhill spiral.

The anti-prorogation rallies across Canada were a success; many of the venues even acknowledging the plight of Haitians.

Also, the fact is most Canadians acknowledge and expect their politicians to react quickly toward a crisis in another part of the world or domestically. Regardless of whether or not Stevie remained at the top, prorogation or no prorogation, it is his job to react quickly.  In fact, I would presume that one of the reasons for Stevie’s dismal showing as of late would be that Canadians would have liked to see parliament reopen for this crisis. As Jane Taber had recently asked Jason Kenney on an episode of Question Period, ‘can’t the Haitian crisis be handled with parliament sitting?’ To which Kenney showed a sudden need for speech therapy.

Furthermore, none of the opposition parties came out to criticise the Harpercons for their handling of the Haitian crisis. In fact, the opposition parties are doing their part to help Haiti as well.

Now, the trap. It would seem that Stevie & the Harpercons want to cancel March & Easter Breaks: a time MPs generally go back home to their families and check out their constituencies. After that prorogation ruckus, It would be  assumed that most Canadians would want this to happen. Certainly Conservative Canadians who were against the prorogation of parliament would be for this.

Traditionally, the parliamentary calendar does remain the same after prorogation of parliament.  If the PM wishes to change the calendar, all opposition parties must vote unanimously for this change.

According to Harpercons, they say there will be just too much work and they must make up for the time he prorogued parliament. Typical Stevie and his Kingly ways: parliament must only operate when it’s convenient for Stevie.

“Instead of playing silly games, the PM should recall Parliament right away to deal with all the important issues facing Canadians,” says Karl Belanger , spokesperson for NDP Leader Jack Layton.

Indeed. I was waiting for something like that to be said, by someone; anyone, really. This is exactly what Canadian voters should be thinking. Be for or against the suspension of spring breaks, but the fact of the matter is if they’re falling so far behind on their work, perhaps parliament shouldn’t be prorogued. Perhaps Stevie should call everyone back to parliament as soon as possible. The Liberals are already there doing some work and being productive. I’m pretty sure the N.D.P. and the Bloc Quebecois would head  back to Ottawa if parliament were called to session again.

Liberal House Leader Ralph Goodale mocked the Conservatives’ sudden change of heart from demanding time to “recalibrate” to now wanting to toil straight through.

“It’s clearly a government in full panic mode . . . trying to scramble out of a mess they created,” Goodale said in an interview Wednesday night.

In spite of what Goodale said, it is likely that the Liberals will entertain Harpercon propositions. Liberal support which has been going up since prorogation, is quite fragile and can change at any time. I even suspect those so-called centrists or small c conservatives who have been supporting Stevie and the Harpercons are looking for a reason to give support back to him. According to many pollsters and pundits, Liberal support is only up because of Stevie’s latest high-handed games, not because of a sudden Iggy love-fest.  In fact, some may argue that it’s not the act of proroguation of parliament itself but more the underhanded way Stevie went about it

“It’s completely a reaction to Stephen Harper,” Bricker, president of Ipsos-Reid, said in a Jan. 24 interview.

“It’s not because people have a really big issue with proroguing the House,” Bricker said.

“It’s really the (political) games, that’s what gets under people’s skin. That’s what you are seeing the effects of (in the poll).”

Well, I would say the act of prorogation itself did play a large part in the recent polls. There are many Canadians calling for parliamentary reform so that prorogation can’t happen again or, at the very least, much more difficult to do so. I think most who attended the rallies and joined the facebook group would agree with me. Most certainly the conservative voters who spoke out against prorogation would agree with me here.

The question becomes will the opposition parties vote unanymously for this calendar change? According to senior Harpercons, they strongly believe that will be on board with this. Gordon O’Connor said,

there is no reason for the House of Commons to take constituency breaks during these weeks. Quite frankly, we would be surprised if the Opposition disagreed.

Gee, Gordo, no time to spend with constituents?  Just because your boss can’t deal with them doesn’t mean the others might not want to.  Sometimes, it’s a good idea to be in touch with the citizens of the country you lead.  You Harpercons would know that if you only made some semblance of effort to open your emails, even if it is a form letter.

That aside: the trap Stevie set is not whether or not anyone will go along with his proposal to skip holiday weeks this spring; there surely will be. However, as mentioned above, the parliamentary  calendar remains the same with or without prorogation and to change it requires a unanimous vote; as in no dissention. I have doubts about that kind of vote being unanimous.  The Bloc Quebecois hasn’t said much since prorogation and I guess if he feels Stevie’s proposal is in the best interests of Quebecers he’ll go along with it.  It looks like the Liberals will go along with it. Will the N.D.P. ? Anybody’s guess.

If we remember one of Stevie’s tactics for remaining so successful is that he knew the game of divide and conquer. He would keep the opposition parties divided. The reason the cross Canada rallies last month were so successful was that the politicians from the opposition were united for that short period.  The picture on the front page of the Montreal Gazette showing Thomas Mulcair, Gilles Duceppe and Marc Garneau (we only see his arm at the other side of Mulcair, but still)  walking side by side leading the anti-prorogation procession through the streets of Downtown Montreal to Philips’ Square.  Our opposition MPs were leading us in unison.

I am also realistic enough to know that this unification was fragile at best.  Unfortunately, I had already seen Mulcair take some shots at the Liberals on Question Period since the rallies.   Right now, as a whole, the opposition is not united or feeling particularly collaborative; this already doesn’t look good for a unanimous vote on calendar change. Also, no matter which party votes for or against the Harpercon proposed calendar change, columnists, pundits, bloggers and of course, the rest of Canadian voters; left or right will no doubt either praise or criticize whatever was voted for and by whom.   Yikes! This isn’t going to be pretty no matter how we look at it.

That is why, Stevie will choose to play the tactician; it works for him. As pointed out earlier, his proposal will have succeeded in dividing the opposition and Canadians; a formula that could raise his numbers back up again. Make no mistake, he doesn’t care whether there is work that will have fallen behind`and catching up with it.  He will have divided and then conquered. Or will they? Do I dare hope for the miracle that the albeit uneasy peace between opposition parties to continue and that they will see right through Stevie’s tactical game? If he were really concerned about being behind on work, he wouldn’t have prorogued parliament in the first place or he would unprorogue parliament as soon as possible.

If we thought this was going to be a bumpy ride; prepare for more of  St-Stevie’s antics between now and March 3; including the reading of the budget, which is sure to be a poison pill.