By Arthur Weinreb
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
We're used to thinking that the political spectrum goes from the right to the left with a centre where the vast majority of Canadians like to believe that they occupy. But our political spectrum really consists of the right where C/conservatives are while everyone else is not in centre or on the left. They are simply "normal".
It has always been this way and this is evident from the observations that are constantly being made by the left tilting mainstream media. Conservatives are nearly always labelled as "right wing" while those on the left of the spectrum are virtually never referred to as being "left wing". Those on the left do not consider themselves left; to them they are just normal, everyday Canadians.
There have been two recent examples that highlight this principle. The first concerns the appointment of federal judges. The Conservative government (aka the new government) is currently making appointments to the 12 judicial advisory committees that are found throughout the country. These councils recommend which men and women they think should serve on the bench of various federal courts. In the words of Liberal MP Michael Ignatieff, the man who would have been king if he were able to make the odd consistent statement, accused the government of "stacking the courts" with those who share the same belief system as the government does. As we all know, the country is really governed by the courts and not the Parliament so it naturally follows that when Steve gets his cronies on the bench, life as it currently exists will come to an abrupt end. The horror!
As true as this might be, it does not alter the fact that Stephen Harper did not invent the power to appoint members to the judicial advisory councils or to the courts. This power has always been around and has been used by the Liberals to make appointments whenever they hold power which of course is most of the time. Like all political parties, the appointments that the Liberals made were ones that helped to further their agenda. But they look at the judicial appointments that they made, not as having a left wing agenda or a Liberal Party agenda but being neutral. The Libs don't realize that their judicial appointments; the ones that led to decisions that found the prohibition of same sex marriage as unconstitutional, are in any way partisan. Those judges weren't following an agenda; they were just interpreting the law and doing the right thing. And when it seems that Stephen Harper is deviating from this "normal", it is a catastrophe that will end society as we know it.
The other example can be seen from the reaction to remarks that were made this week by the chief of defence staff, General Rick Hillier. Hillier described the 1990s, a time when military spending was slashed by a finance minister whose name escapes me at the moment, as "a decade of darkness". This led to Liberal MP Denis Coderre, who hasn't really surfaced since he marched in solidarity with Hezbollah flag waving demonstrators in an anti-Israel march last summer in Montreal, to call Canada's top soldier "a prop" for the Conservatives. In the reality that is foreign to a lot of Liberals, Hillier is just a public servant who is upset at a government slashed funding in his department. When the Liberals return to power, and unfortunately they will, they will increase funding in some areas and remarks will be made about the dark days of Scary Stephen. But don't look to them to regard the authors of those remarks as "props" for their government. Increased spending under a Liberal regime will be considered normal and any criticism of past governments will be perfectly justified.
If nothing else, the Liberals in opposition are fun to watch.
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