Should Gilles Duceppe answer questions in the House of Commons as part of the Government? Should the Bloc get cabinet posts as the second largest coalition partner?
The Governor General must decide if the NDP and Liberals have a coalition that can demonstrate the confidence of the House of Commons, provide stable leadership and move forward on a common agenda during this economic crisis. In order to do that she will have to factor in the role of the Bloc Quebecois. Are they part of the government and a formal member of the coalition or are they an opposition party? To avoid an election the Bloc Quebecois must be part of the coalition to make it larger than the 143 member Conservative caucus and to control a majority of seats in the House of Commons. Therefore in order to approve this coalition, she must accept that the separatists will be part of the Canadian government. Otherwise the NDP-Liberal coalition does not have the confidence of the House. As a result separatist MPs would have to sit with the government and I think it is only fair that as leader of a governing coalition partner, Gilles Duceppe should be fair game to opposition questions in the House of Commons regardless of if he is in charge of a Ministry or not. His input will be crucial to government decisions and he should be subject to accountability in the House. In a traditional coalition government, as leader of the second largest party in the coalition, Duceppe would be entitled to the Deputy Prime Minister or Finance post. For political reasons he will not get those portfolios, but he should not be able to hide from opposition questions and Liberals and NDP partners should not be allowed to hide him either. Liberals are fighting for democracy right? So a question for this coalition...will Gilles Duceppe be subject to questions in the House of Commons from Canada's only opposition party in the legislature or will they pretend to be opposition MPs and prop up the government only with votes in this scenario? The answer to that question could play a role in how the Governor General decides.
Another question is what kind of legitimacy would this government have without the second largest coalition partner having cabinet representation? According to a poll: 62% of Quebeckers think the Bloc should demand cabinet posts as a condition for their support of the NDP-Liberals. Given the Bloc's 50 seats compared to the NDP's 37, I think this is only fair. Liberals are trying to have it both ways with the Bloc. They require their support but want to pretend there is no association. That is fantasy. A viable coalition must have government participation from all parties involved. The Governor General must have clear confidence that this united coalition can last, get things done and provide stable leadership during a time of economic crisis.
So far I don't see much indication that this alliance has been well thought out. It is a clear coup and power grab as no platform has been presented to the electorate who's votes they have overturned, no terms and conditions of this alliance have been made public and there is serious doubt that it can survive the next few days, let alone the term of the agreement. The memberships of all of these individual parties have not even have the chance to vote on this merger of the left to give it some internal legitimacy. The coalition was never presented as a possibility during the election campaign, in fact all of these leaders campaigned against such an idea. Already we have seen market instability because of the political situation today. The stakes are high for ordinary Canadians who voted six weeks ago. The more thought that goes into how this coalition would play out, the more ridiculous it seems. Based on what is known today; I don't see how the Governor General could do anything other than call an election and end this circus.
-Darryl
