The Most Likely Outcome

The most likely outcome of the current democratic crisis is that the opposition will come to nought. Harper will get most Canadians to believe that there is no difference between his prorogations and the 104 that went before. When parliament resumes, the new parliamentary committees will shuffle off the Afghan detainee issue to the dustbins of history. Harper will successfully set a precedent that strips all power from the majority of elected federal representatives. He will not suffer in the polls.

Why do I think this? It's the third time in 15 months that he's dissolved parliament under highly dubious circumstances (starting with breaking his own fixed election law in September 2008), and he got away with it the first two times. He doesn't care about those of us who joined the Facebook group or who will march on January 23: we weren't going to vote for him anyway. In fact, it is his goal to polarize Canadians as a way to intensify the support of his base. That's an old Republican trick that was also used successfully by Mike Harris.

So what can we do?

I think we need to keep three goals in mind:

• Loudly express our objection to the prorogation. The January 23 rallies are great but they aren't enough. Keep this issue on the front page.


• Loudly demand that the Afghan inquiry continue. This whole issue is about not wanting certain documents and facts to be revealed. They must be.


• Punish Harper in the next election. Right now, this means sending money to the nonCon party of your choice (you get most of it back in a tax credit, anyway).

Any other ideas on how to stop Harper from getting away with this?

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