On priorities

Shorter Michael Ignatieff:

When it comes to what's truly important - namely, easing my personal road to power - the Harper government has been a smashing success. So why should I worry if a few of the little people aren't doing so well?

Bad for everybody else

The good news for Lib supporters: for one brief and shining moment, Michael Ignatieff actually took a principled stand based on common sense rather than parroting the spin of corporate interests...

Last weekend, on a tour of Vancouver Island, Ignatieff was asked about his position on asbestos, and he said he favoured banning exports.

"I'm probably walking right off the cliff into some unexpected public policy bog of which I'm unaware, but if asbestos is bad for Parliamentarians in the Parliament of Canada, it just has to be bad for everybody else," he said. "Our export of this dangerous product overseas has got to stop."

But needless to say, a complete reversal wasn't far behind:

But in a scrum with reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday, Ignatieff was asked about his statement and he didn't mention a ban.

"We have had 60 years of experience with this product. What I said in answer to a question is that we have an obligation to international agreements to the countries that we export to, to make them aware of the risks. That is all I said."

It's left as a challenge for any reader to figure out how one can square the statement that Canada "has got to stop" exporting a "dangerous product" with the recent position. But that figures to be no less an exercise in futility than any other effort to justify most of Ignatieff's actions since he took over the Libs.

More Liberal visionaries

So what kind of values are the Libs looking for in their leadership race? Surprise, surprise...

"There's one factor here and only one factor and that's getting an electable leader," said a senior Liberal, who asked to remain unidentified...

Stephen Clarkson, a University of Toronto political scientist, argues for a "thinkers conference" like those that have taken place when the party was in the wilderness in the past.

Unfortunately, the Liberals do not have the luxury of time in this minority government era, he said. "They can't do what they should do."

But Liberals are bullish that the difficult economy will erode confidence in the Tories during this time, perhaps lessening the need for such a rethink.

On selective democracy

I'm surprised it took this long for the seemingly inevitable deal to be reached, but the Libs and Cons in the Senate have agreed that both the budget and the Kyoto implementation bill will be voted on tomorrow. But even an agreement reached by his own party isn't stopping at least one prominent Con from declaring that he wants to see the Senate continue to block the will of the majority in Parliament:

The Harper government has struck a deal with the Liberal-dominated Senate that will see royal assent today to a controversial private member's bill on implementing the Kyoto accord on climate change in return passing the 2007 federal budget without amendments.

The Senate's deputy government leader Gerald Comeau announced the agreement Thursday afternoon after the upper chamber's national finance committee fast-tracked the budget bill through two days of hearings this week that included Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald encouraging Liberals to pass amendments to the new equalization formula...

Peter Van Loan, the government House leader in the Commons, said he wasn't aware of any deal and added that he hoped the Kyoto bill wouldn't go through because it was bad for Canada.

Needless to say, Van Loan joins his boss in having a consistent track record of claiming that an unelected Senate shouldn't be standing in the way of bills passed by a majority in the House of Commons - at least, when it comes to bills put forward by his party. But as is the case for so many of his Con partymates, Van Loan's apparent interest in the will of Canadian voters ends at the point where he disagrees with them in the slightest.

Fortunately, it looks like Van Loan and company will be forced to accept defeat on Bill C-288. But even as the current standoff seems to have come to an end and Canada's federal politicians head home for the summer, the Cons don't seem even faintly likely to change their playbook when Parliament reconvenes this fall. And it'll be important then to keep in mind just how brazen the Cons remain in applying double standards now.

Same old story

Shorter Ken Dryden to NDP voters:
If you care about aboriginals, child care, education, the environment, and poverty, then you have to give the Libs another chance to pretend to do something about them.