Canada Needs a Red-Orange-Green National Unity Government

At a time when the country that has been our best friend, ally, and international partner for longer than we have been a country has decided that we are now the enemy (and the country that was our and our NATO allies’ historical enemy is now their best fiend) we need to be united.

This time in our history is not the time for a snap election, a change of leadership, or for a Prime Minister to be distracted by an election campaign, especially when Justin Trudeau has just proven himself to be the leader we need.

At this time, facing this existential threat, we can certainly not depend on Pierre Poilievre and his MAGA and freedumb convoy sympathetic Conservatives to lead us against the attacks of the Trump regime to the south.

There is however a solution. The Liberal Party, New Democratic Party and Green Party must come together to form a coalition National Unity Government. Justin Trudeau can continue as Prime Minister until after the fall election without the political distraction of having to seek re-election.

In the next election the three progressive parties must pledge to not run against each other, with the candidate from the party with the most votes in the last election in each constituency being the National Unity Government candidate. The new Liberal Party leader will lead the Liberal Party campaign leaving Prime Minister Trudeau free to lead the country in this battle for our existence until a new government is elected.

This war will be continuing and I would propose the continuing National Unity Government (if the voters so choose) appoint Justin Trudeau as a special envoy to deal with the Trump regime.

The National Unity Government should also bring in electoral reform in it’s first term after re-election. Ranked Ballot Voting which essentially keeps our single member constituency system, effectively only changing the way ballots are counted, will probably be the easiest to find a consensus for. 

Five Point Plan to Save Canada from the Cons

1. Justin Trudeau announces his intention to resign as Prime Minister to the Liberal caucus and the Liberal caucus appoints an interim leader.

2. Justin Trudeau resigns as Prime Minister and asks the Governor General to select the interim Liberal leader as Prime Minister of a National Unity Government with Jagmeet Singh as Deputy Prime Minister and Elizabeth May in the Cabinet (in order to allow assured confidence and time for a new Liberal leader to be selected before the next federal election).

3. The Liberal, New Democratic, and Green parties announce they will not compete against each other in the next election, agreeing that whichever party (of the three) won the most votes in each constituency in the last election will not be challenged by the other two.

4. After the next election, if successful, the National Unity government will strike a special Parliamentary committee with expert researchers to consider expert and public testimony on electoral reform, followed by a report and legislation, with implementation of a new electoral system by Elections Canada.

5. The National Unity Government will be dissolved and a new election held under the new electoral system and a truly representative government that reflects the votes of the Canadian people will be elected.

Canadian Diversity and Right Wing Hate of Justin Trudeau

Yes, Justin Trudeau is a mediocre Prime Minister, but that is not why the right hates him. Nor is it because of carbon taxes or provincial vaccine mandates or lockdowns. It is because of perhaps the one thing he has excelled at and that is promoting Canadian diversity.

There are those that claim that Canada has no culture and others that claim that Canadian culture is a white European culture and anyone who was here before or came after the colonizers needs to adapt to that culture. But the truth is Canadian culture is a culture of diversity starting before anyone lived on this land and enhanced by everyone who came after.

Canadian diversity starts with it’s geography. We are a geographically diverse country (from sea to sea to sea to American border) and that is reflected in the diversity of our first peoples, from the peoples of the north, to the coastal peoples, the peoples of the prairies and the boreal forest and so on. All of these peoples had their own social systems and systems of government, including legal systems based on healing and restorative justice that were, and still are, centuries ahead of the European colonizers.

Then came the colonizers and immigrants who added to the diversity of the country adding traditions, languages and religions from all over the world. But it is not only ethnic and religious diversity that make us the country we are. We also have a diversity of physical and mental abilities, including neurodivergent people, as well as peoples of different sexual orientations and gender identity, first recognized by Canada’s first people through the concept of two spirit people.

The Prime Minister has recognized that our diversity is our strength and that is one of the main reasons he has become the target of the hate of right wing extremists and white supremacists.

Postscript.

None of this is to deny Canada’s historical mistreatment of our indigenous peoples or it’s discriminatory treatment of newcomers or other vulnerable peoples. That is a whole treatise on it’s own. This is meant to be focused on Canadian ideals and how we move forward in the future.

Federal Election 2019 Reflections

The big surprise of the election has to be the Bloc Québécois resurgence, although I am sure they probably saw it coming even if the rest of us didn't. This certainly makes leader Yves-François Blanchet's position secure.

The other surprise was the late campaign resurgence of the New Democratic Party under leader Jagmeet Singh. I am sure many New Democrats are thinking if only they had another week of the campaign as his popularity surge does not seem to have peaked yet. If before the election there was uncertainty over whether they had made the right choice he has proven himself and his leadership is certainly secure now.

The Green Party under Elizabeth May is a different matter altogether. This was the election they were supposed to make a breakthrough and it proved not to be. While Elizabeth May may be a saint to many Greens, others have questioned her “leadership style”, to put it politely. To many the Green Party is Elizabeth May and that may be a problem in itself. The question for the future of the party may be is there a Green Party beyond Elizabeth May.

As for the upstart People’s Party of Canada (aka the “Mad Max party” or the “I'll get you Andrew Scheer party”), it went down in flames with even leader Maxime Bernier losing the seat he won as a Conservative in the last election. There will be no leadership change here as you cannot have anyone else but Max Bernier lead the Max Bernier party. What we will likely see is brave statements about this being their first election and they will be better organized next time, followed by the party slowly fading away.

This was supposed to be the election the Conservative Party under Andrew Scheer formed government, considering Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau's recent SNC-Lavalin and brown face scandals, to name just two. But that was not to be, leaving Max Bernier with at least something to celebrate. The knives were already out for Andrew Scheer during the last week of the campaign as many Conservatives foresaw what was coming. But it is not only leadership the Conservatives have to change, they need to find a way to move beyond their social conservative base that just scares away other voters.

As for the apparent winner, Liberal Party leader, and Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, the big question is going to be did he win a minority or lose a majority. To many observers this is the election where more people voted against the Conservatives than voted against the Liberals. It may indeed have been an election where the Liberals won despite, not because of, Justin Trudeau. I see it as similar to the last election Kathleen Wynne's Liberals won in Ontario. Discontent with her leadership of the province was only going to grow and she did not see it was time to step down and let the Liberals re-brand under a new leader if they hoped to win the next election. Will Justin Trudeau see this, or more importantly, will the Liberal Party.

So how many party leadership campaigns will we be seeing in the next few years.

Postscript - What if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had kept his promise and this election was not held under the First Past The Post system but under a system where every vote counted.