Sputtering gasps of life won't revive Parliament Toronto Star
On't be deceived; instant election relief is not a cure. This still infant 40th Parliament, the one awkwardly born just last October, is dead. It's just not ready to lie down.In the way of headless chickens, it will stagger around until the end of September, the newest deadline for toppling Conservatives, or perhaps make it as far as a late winter federal budget. But this week's spasm is only another symptom of the fatal disease that struck before Christmas. Hyper-partisanship and a fascination with the jugular remain the capital's common characteristics.
Little remains from the PM's post-election promise of collegial cooperation. Ottawa's repeating pattern begins with political abuse of an economic statement and ends, as it did again this week, in a needless crisis.
Last November, Conservatives destroyed trust by soft-pedalling the tough times ahead in a fiscal update that went hard at Conservative rivals by arbitrarily announcing pivotal changes to party funding. Predictably, an existential threat brought an existential response. Liberals and the NDP, with Bloc support, tried to form a coalition that had far more constitutional than public legitimacy.
