So…2007 dawns…and what does the political situation present?
(1) A cabinet shuffle that results in Rona (it’s all about the hair) Ambrose being shunted off to Intergovernmental Affairs (oh so exciting!), and John Baird being appointed ou new Environment Minister. He’s purported to have said (and I’m paraphrasing), “Now that I’ve cleaned up government, I’m going to clean up the environment.”
Hmm…I haven’t exactly noticed a lemony-fresh smell emanating from Ottawa recently. Let’s also remember that this is a man who belongs to a government that claims that 2050 is a perfectly suitable target for clean air.
Judging from his House of Commons performances to date, he’s loud, brutish, and the archetypal lout – a master of partisan squabbling. When interviewed on television the other night, Mr. Baird was so viscerally unable to offer concrete answers to questions posed by the host of CBC Sunday, he might as well have been a mannequin, repeating bromides from a discreetly hidden tape recorder! In other words, he’s just another bag of hot air, awaiting orders from the Great Leader.
You’ll forgive me for thinking that we’re in for some interesting times. And someone call in a wardrobe consultant – Mr. Baird dresses like he’s trapped in a late-80s sitcom.
(2) Wajid Khan, MP for Mississauga-Streetsville, and selfless advisor to the Prime Minister on South/East Asian affairs, ditches the Liberals for the Conservatives, claiming that Harper is the best leader the country could have, and that they share the same views and values.
How lovely for him (translation: good riddance to bad rubbish). It would seem that the only reason Mr. Khan ran as a Liberal in Mississauga-Streetsville was due to the discovery that the residents of his riding had very little desire to actually VOTE for an authentic Conservative candidate. Hence the wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing/look-at-me-doing-a-David-Emmerson routine.
Still, it was almost touching to watch his press conference, which descended into a smug, maudlin love-in with his new party strongman/leader, Mr. Harper. I’m surprised they didn’t kiss at the podium…but I’m forgetting that REAL Conservative men don’t do that sort of thing! They only VOTE against it…
(3) An unexpected bonus from the Khan defection: the new parliamentary numbers show that the NDP now holds the balance of power in our minority parliament. Unfortunately, this doesn’t turn into political gold for Jack Layton…
(a) If you were an NDPer, would YOU willing negotiate with a party that stands for everything you’re supposedly against? Is it worth selling your political soul?
(b) With a new, green-glowing Liberal leader, and the Green Party continuing to rise in popularity, why would the Conservatives even consider negotiating with the NDP? Just how relevant ARE they these days…?
The new year takes shape: Environment has topped health care and Afghanistan as THE electoral priority…right-wing hatchet men gain more power…defectors continue to cross the floor…is this the new normal of Canadian politics? And how much longer until we have our 3rd federal election in two years?
If this is the new normal, it sucks. Give me majority government any day…as long as it’s not a Harper autocracy, of course. 
