On predetermination

It wasn't that long ago that Deceivin' Stephen was talking about needing a consensus to approve any extension of Canada's combat mission in Afghanistan. Now, the CP reports that Harper has predictably reversed course, suggesting not only that he's looking only for a bare majority vote, but also that he's completely unwilling to listen to what the House of Commons has to say unless he agrees with the outcome:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says he won't be holding a vote in Parliament on Canada's Afghanistan mission unless he can get some other party to support his desire for an extension beyond 2009.

Harper, speaking after a summit of pan-Pacific leaders in Sydney, Australia, said there's no rush to have a debate or a vote on mission...

The prime minister says there will be no vote until at least some of the opposition in the minority Commons will support the government...

It remains to be seen how Harper will react if, as expected, the opposition parties aren't about to let the Cons dictate the timing of the next vote on Afghanistan.

But it's all the more clear that left to their own devices, the Cons' sole interest is in forcing their preferred outcome rather than actually governing in a way that reflects the desires of Canadians and their elected representatives. And that fact should make opposition MPs - especially the Libs who put Harper's last extension over the top - ever more wary of allowing their votes to be used for the Cons' purposes.