Liberal Fear of Backlash

After the Throne Speech made by Stephen Harper, Stephane Dion eventually made clear his intentions as far as dealing with it. "Dion pledged to stop any anti-environmental Conservative legislation," which would result in a vote of non-confidence and a subsequent election (As reported in the CanWest News Service article Won't support anti-environmental legislation: Dion).

While it is good to see Dion finally take some initiative in this criticism of the Conservative government, he seems to be taking his time in actually revealing his true opinion. While the NDP and Bloc Quebecois made their intentions to vote against the Throne Speech public from the beginning, Dion kept his parties intentions to himself.

While it Dion's intentions pertaining to the actions of the Conservative government may be seen as some as commendable, I believe that they took the cowards way out by not actually casting a vote in regard to the Throne Speech. Instead of forcing an election, the Liberals instead choose to stay home and let the Throne Speech pass.

Dion is now saying that his party will vote against the Conservatives if they see them acting incorrectly in their running of the country. But if they did not agree with the Throne Speech in the first place, why did they not vote it down? They simply did not want to force an election because they feared that the voters would blame them for it and therefore not give them their vote.

If the Liberals actually cared about the state of Canada, they should have called the Conservatives on their proposed policies that do not seem to benefit Canada, and especially the environment.

In my opinion this is a clear example of cowardice on the part of the Liberals, who fear the backlash of forcing an election so much that they risk the passing of policies that do not benefit Canada, its citizens, or the environment.

Harper's Lobbying Regulations Going to Far?

Should secret lobbying be allowed in the federal government or not? This is one topic which Harper's government is clearly against, but may be overreacting to. Harper's attempts to put regulations in place related to limiting secret lobbying have upset many lobbyists (As reported in the Ottawa Citizen article Accountability Act draws ire of lobbyists).

While Harper's government is trying to achieve one of their main campaign promises, which came about because of the Liberal sponsorship scandal, they could be taking this too far. Harper's government laid out "five options to define the type of communication needing to be reported," ranging from very liberal to very strict.

However, these options do not seem to coincide with Harper's campaign promises which "require ministers and senior government officials to report their contacts with lobbyists."

Harper's desire to apply strict regulations on secret lobbying has greatly upset many lobbyists. When contacted about Harper's intentions, many of the lobbyists responded negatively. The general response by those who opposed the proposed regulations was that they only wasted time and money, and that they would "hinder the free-flow of information between stake holders and the government."

While I do believe that there should be stricter regulations put in place to limit the amount of secret lobbying, Harper's government does seem to be going to far. The main question to ask when dealing with this topic is whether or not the benefits of these regulations are greater than the time and money they could waste.

Arctic Adventure Worthy or Not

The current Conservative government seems to be trying to make a positive difference in the Arctic and surrounding area, but is this cause worth it? They have recently promised to commit there support to having a bigger role in the North (As reported in the CanWest News Service article Harper stresses 'use it or lose it' as he earmarks more funds for North).

In attempting to raise Canada's presence in the North, Harper's government has promised a "$150-million commitment to International Polar Year." While I am not a fan of many of Harper's policies, I do somewhat admire his initiative on this program. The Arctic seems to have been ignored by many previous federal governments, so it is great to see the current government get involved in it.

But this program does not guarantee any significant advancement in the North. Their is no real commitment to making Canada's ties with the North stronger, only that they with commit money to do research in the North.

one concern that I have with this program is the amount of money Harper's government is putting towards it and where this money is coming from. While this may be a worthwhile cause, if it means taking money from other important programs which are already underfunded, such as environmental programs, this does not seem right.

I am also weary of the events surrounding the governments decision to invest in the North. Since it took an international initiative to commit to the North before Harper would, this really makes me question where his true beliefs lie, and if he would have even invested in the North had there not been pressure from other nations.

While performing research on the North does seem like an important cause, I am just not convinced that the benefits outweigh the costs.