The Phone Lines are Buzzing Between Ottawa and Canberra. We Listen In.

"Hello"

"Hi Tony.  Stephen here."

"Hi Steve, good to hear a friendly voice.  Bloody few around here today."

"Tony, I heard about this "spill" thing.  Is it true?  Can those backbencher nothings really push you out?"

"Yeah, Steve.  'Fraid they can, mate.  The morning papers are even calling on me to quit."

"Tony, sorry to hear that.  I know what you're going through.  I had a close call myself a few years ago."

"Yeah, Steve, but you managed to get through it.  And it wasn't your own MPs trying to knife you in the back.  That bastard, Turnbull."

"Wait, Tony, I might just have the answer.  Have you got one of those governor-general guys?  You know, like a ceremonial valet who comes out every now and then for things like throne speeches."

"Yeah, Steve, I'm pretty sure I've got one of those."

"Well Tony, here's the plan.  You go to that little bugger and tell him you want to prorogue Parliament.  That's p-r-o-r-o-g-u-e.  Pro-rogue as in 'in favour of you going rogue'."

"What's that do, Steve?"

"It sends all those little bastards - all of'em even your own backbench - into limbo.  It's like you're packing them off to summer camp.  They love it actually. Some of them will paint the boat house or put a new deck on the cottage.  One or two might write a book about their family no one will ever read.  That sort of thing."

"Gee, Steve, that sounds great!  Then I get to run the country however I like, right?"

"That's right, Tony.  You've got a name for it, "captain's call."  It's like one giant, endless captain's call."

"Steve, you're a godsend.  Well, I've got work to do if I'm going to prorogue Parliament by tomorrow morning.  I've got that governor general's phone number around here somewhere.  What was that old bugger's name again?"

"Give'em Hell, Tony.  And, if the reporters get whiney, tell them you're saving the country from a constitutional crisis.  By the time they figure out how to spell 'constitutional', they'll have forgotten the whole thing."

"Talk to you soon, Steve.  Bye.  And thanks again, cobber.  I owe you for this, big time."

"Bye, Tony. Remember, "captain's call."

click

And that, kids, is how Tony Abbott became monarch of the Kingdom of Australia.

A Look Into the Cardboard Soul of Steve Harper

I think I understand Steve Harper's failure as a prime minister after reading parts of the transcript of his year-end interview with Global TV anchor, Dawna Friesen.

Harper stated the obvious, that his priority is the Canadian economy although he didn't quite say, "at the expense of anything and everything else."

The chilling part came when Harper discussed the future and fretted over 'getting it right instead of getting it wrong.'   There seemed to be a profound timidity, perhaps outright insecurity, on Harper's part that may explain his glaring lack of vision.  

Rather than dealing with the future, Harper has a wooden fixation on the present.   It's no wonder he (and, in fairness, many other Canadian politicians) cannot come to grips with the gravest challenges to young Canadians and future generations, inequality and climate change.   They simply lack the courage to deal with these issues and respond, instead, by simply turning away from them.

Canada's Crumbling Parliamentary Democracy

The two acts of the Harper government that have most infuriated me were the gagging of the public and armed services and the installation of political commissars in the PMO to ensure that the information flow from government to the public is suitably shaped in order to advance Mr. Harper's political ambitions. Fortunately for Harper and unfortunately for Canada, the issue has never gained traction. There's been no stirring anger, no lasting controversy over a policy that seems positively Stalinist.

James Travers has a 'must read' article today on the same theme, the unravelling of Canadian democracy.

Laughter or disbelief would have been my '80s response to any gloomy prediction that within the next 20 odd years Canada's iconic police force would twist the outcome of a federal election. I would have rejected out of hand the suggestion that Parliament would become a largely ceremonial body incapable of performing its defining functions of safeguarding public spending and holding ministers to account. I would have treated as ridiculous any forecast that the senior bureaucracy would become politicized, that many of the powers of a monarch would flow from Parliament to the prime minister or that the authority of the Governor General, the de facto head of state, would be openly challenged.

Yet every one has happened and each has chipped away another brick of the democratic foundations underpinning Parliament. Incrementally and by stealth, Canada has become a situational democracy. What matters now is what works. Precedents, procedures and even laws have given way to the political doctrine of expediency.

Politics and politicians being what they are, the reflex response is to grasp for all remaining power. Once secured, it can be used to exercise political will more easily by overruling rules and rewriting or simply ignoring laws. Power alone is effective in cross-cutting through the silo walls that isolate departments and frustrate co-ordinated policies. Important to all administrations, unfettered manoeuvring room is that much more important to minority governments desperate to maximize limited options and minimize opposition influence.

Read more of this thought provoking article here:

http://www.thestar.com/News/Insight/article/613535