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2:11 AM
TORONTO; OTTAWA -- The game plan was good: Force an early election on the economy that the Conservatives would easily win, or take public subsidy money away from the opposition parties, especially the bankrupt Liberals, who are $3-million in debt.
It was a perfect fit with Stephen Harper's war of attrition. The Prime Minister is known as a man who gets up in the morning with a determination to destroy his political opponents.
The inclusion in the government's economic statement Thursday of a measure to end subsidies to political parties for every vote they earn was as popular inside the Conservatives' parliamentary caucus as it was a red flag to an infuriated opposition.
The miscalculation was that Mr. Harper and his inner circle did not believe that all three opposition parties - the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois - would agree to defeat the Conservative minority government in the House of Commons and offer a coalition as an alternative.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay told the Halifax Chronicle-Herald on Thursday that, when the subsidy measure went before Parliament, the opposition would blink.
"When they play chicken," he said, "they wind up looking like chickens."
Except this time they didn't.
And what Mr. Harper has created is an altered dynamic in Parliament. He may not exactly have united the political centre-left, but he has removed the barriers to the Liberals and NDP working together.
He no longer is the only party leader in Parliament wearing brass knuckles.
There are two theories as to why he did not foresee this outcome.
The first is that he believed the Official Opposition Liberals, unable even to agree on who their leader should be, could never agree on entering coalition talks with the other opposition parties.
In addition, he had every reason to believe that if his government was defeated on a parliamentary no-confidence motion, triggering an election, the Conservatives could be certain of returning to power, likely with a majority.
Pollster Greg Lyle of Innovative Research Group said yesterday that fresh survey numbers show the Conservatives well out in front of the other parties in having the public's confidence in their ability to manage the economy.
As for cutting subsidies to the political parties, Conservative officials said yesterday there was nothing new to the idea; MPs frequently heard about it from their constituents, whose anger is often aimed at the funding that goes to the separatist Bloc Québécois.
While the other parties have to pay for planes that crisscross the country during election campaigns, the Bloc mainly travels by bus and focuses all of its efforts on one province, with advertising in only one language. Thus, the subsidy to the Bloc goes much farther than the funding that the other parties receive, allowing the Bloc to expend almost no energy on fundraising, except at the riding level.
The second theory is that Mr. Harper's determination to destroy the Liberals borders on the pathological.
It has become a blind spot in his judgment, with no one in his office to put the brakes on his impulses.
His chief of staff, Guy Giorno - once chief of staff to Ontario Progressive Conservative premier Mike Harris and one of the icy architects of Mr. Harris's Common Sense Revolution - is not the ying to Mr. Harper's yang. Rather they are two yangs together.
Mr. Lyle yesterday recalled the story told of Clifford Scotton, who was a key aide to Manitoba NDP premier Howard Pawley. Mr. Scotton's job was to say four words to Mr. Pawley whenever the need arose: "I think not, Howard."
Mr. Giorno is not the Prime Minister's Clifford Scotton, said Mr. Lyle.
In any event, Mr. Harper failed to recognize the building blood lust in the opposition parties: the cockiness of the NDP and the Bloc and the almost desperate desire of the Liberals to demonstrate that they possess testosterone after their dismal showing in last month's federal election and the voters' rejection of Mr. Dion.
Source: theglobeandmail.coma
It was a perfect fit with Stephen Harper's war of attrition. The Prime Minister is known as a man who gets up in the morning with a determination to destroy his political opponents.
The inclusion in the government's economic statement Thursday of a measure to end subsidies to political parties for every vote they earn was as popular inside the Conservatives' parliamentary caucus as it was a red flag to an infuriated opposition.
The miscalculation was that Mr. Harper and his inner circle did not believe that all three opposition parties - the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Québécois - would agree to defeat the Conservative minority government in the House of Commons and offer a coalition as an alternative.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay told the Halifax Chronicle-Herald on Thursday that, when the subsidy measure went before Parliament, the opposition would blink.
"When they play chicken," he said, "they wind up looking like chickens."
Except this time they didn't.
And what Mr. Harper has created is an altered dynamic in Parliament. He may not exactly have united the political centre-left, but he has removed the barriers to the Liberals and NDP working together.
He no longer is the only party leader in Parliament wearing brass knuckles.
There are two theories as to why he did not foresee this outcome.
The first is that he believed the Official Opposition Liberals, unable even to agree on who their leader should be, could never agree on entering coalition talks with the other opposition parties.
In addition, he had every reason to believe that if his government was defeated on a parliamentary no-confidence motion, triggering an election, the Conservatives could be certain of returning to power, likely with a majority.
Pollster Greg Lyle of Innovative Research Group said yesterday that fresh survey numbers show the Conservatives well out in front of the other parties in having the public's confidence in their ability to manage the economy.
As for cutting subsidies to the political parties, Conservative officials said yesterday there was nothing new to the idea; MPs frequently heard about it from their constituents, whose anger is often aimed at the funding that goes to the separatist Bloc Québécois.
While the other parties have to pay for planes that crisscross the country during election campaigns, the Bloc mainly travels by bus and focuses all of its efforts on one province, with advertising in only one language. Thus, the subsidy to the Bloc goes much farther than the funding that the other parties receive, allowing the Bloc to expend almost no energy on fundraising, except at the riding level.
The second theory is that Mr. Harper's determination to destroy the Liberals borders on the pathological.
It has become a blind spot in his judgment, with no one in his office to put the brakes on his impulses.
His chief of staff, Guy Giorno - once chief of staff to Ontario Progressive Conservative premier Mike Harris and one of the icy architects of Mr. Harris's Common Sense Revolution - is not the ying to Mr. Harper's yang. Rather they are two yangs together.
Mr. Lyle yesterday recalled the story told of Clifford Scotton, who was a key aide to Manitoba NDP premier Howard Pawley. Mr. Scotton's job was to say four words to Mr. Pawley whenever the need arose: "I think not, Howard."
Mr. Giorno is not the Prime Minister's Clifford Scotton, said Mr. Lyle.
In any event, Mr. Harper failed to recognize the building blood lust in the opposition parties: the cockiness of the NDP and the Bloc and the almost desperate desire of the Liberals to demonstrate that they possess testosterone after their dismal showing in last month's federal election and the voters' rejection of Mr. Dion.
Source: theglobeandmail.coma
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