Harper Index: Parliamentary democracy disdained under new rules

Conservatives campaigning to disarm institutions of Canadian government and replace them with a regime based on plebiscites.

While the country awaited Prime Minister Harper's emergence from Rideau Hall two weeks ago, John Baird surprised the CBC's Don Newman in the lobby of parliament by telling him that "we intend to go over the heads of the House of Commons and the Governor-General." When challenged, Mr Baird elaborated: The Conservative government gains its mandate directly from the people of Canada. Only elections count. His insistence suggested this was no bit of casual exaggeration. The institutions by which Canada traditionally limits and controls its governments — the House of Commons and the Crown — are irrelevant to the new regime. As one of Stephen Harper's handful of ministers granted authority to speak his master's thoughts, Mr Baird was probably letting us in on the kind of message the prime minister carried that morning to Governor-General Jean.

And then there were those two curious television appearances by Prime Minister Harper. The first (offered in the pleading guise of Uriah Heap) preceded his visit to the Governor-General; the second came last week in an extended mid-afternoon interview with Peter Mansbridge. Both were — according to the normal practices of parliamentary government — unnecessary. Why should the prime minister command free television time in the early days of a new House of Commons before visiting Rideau Hall, or in the slack interlude after prorogation of a parliamentary session?

Mr Harper twice gave us the answer to this question. It had nothing to do with the severity of the economic crisis. It was the same revelation John Baird had offered to Don Newman. The prime minister put it this way: "I am not here to play parliamentary games."

...

Under Mr Harper's new rules of legitimacy, no Conservative minority government can be defeated in the House of Commons until it has presented its full budgetary plans; and once defeated, it has the right to dissolve parliament and seek a fresh mandate at the ballot box.

John Baird has already explained those rules to us. Next time the opposition parties come together to defeat the government in the House, Mr Harper will ratchet up the sanctions to another level, beyond prorogation. He will appeal beyond the House of Commons and the Governor-General directly to the people. Under the Harper Constitution, the prime minister will ask Michaëlle Jean for a dissolution of the House and fresh elections because only the people, not the parliament, can legitimately defeat a government. And only the people can select a new one. If the Governor-General grants his request, the point is proven. If she refuses it and asks another party to form a government, the campaign of vilification will intensify as it threatened to do last week: the new government will be undemocratic; the Governor-General will be the opposition's lapdog.

This is demagoguery. Mr Harper and his supporters have already begun their campaign to disarm the institutions of parliamentary government and replace it with a plebiscitary regime. We have been warned.

...

http://www.harperindex.ca/ViewArticle.cfm?Ref=00178