As France collapsed in the face of Germany’s blitzkrieg in the Second World War, Britain’s government offered joint citizenship between the two countries if France would stay in the war. The offer was dismissed as no better than “fusion with a corpse.”
Last week’s deal between the federal Liberal and NDP parties, of which more in a moment, promises to be, if anything, a fusion between two corpses. The Liberal end of the agreement ties Justin Trudeau’s government to promises that cannot be afforded, nor likely kept.
Jagmeet Singh has, meanwhile, erased any reason for voting NDP at the next election. Across nearly every important area of public policy, his party is now joined at the hip with a government he cannot control. History has not been kind to the junior partners in such one-sided arrangements.
So what does this deal contain? First, in exchange for a raft of new programs, the NDP have promised to keep the Liberals in office until 2024.
Note to Singh: In 2017, John Horgan signed a similar agreement with the B.C. Green Party to sustain his minority administration, then reneged when the moment suited him. The Greens were all but wiped out in the election that followed.
And these new initiatives?
First, a dental-care program. The details are fuzzy, but the Parliamentary Budget Officer costed such a program in the region of $20 billion if fully implemented.
Second, “movement” toward a universal national pharmacare plan.
Note to Trudeau: Neither of these initiatives fall within the constitutional authority of the federal government.
Third, “tabling” a Safe Long-Term Care Act that will “ensure seniors are guaranteed the care they deserve.”
This is pure persiflage. Ottawa has no means, legal or otherwise, to follow through on any such assurance. Perhaps that’s why the act will only be tabled, not passed.
I could go on. In total there are 24 commitments in this package, not one of them approved by the House of Commons. The sum total, if enacted, would ruin the country’s finances and cause war with the provinces, whose exclusive jurisdiction is to be invaded.
It is also deeply divisive. Nearly 90 per cent of right-leaning voters oppose the deal, while around 80 per cent of left-leaning Canadians support it. This is no way to unite an already fractious country.
One last comment on the details. The preamble promises that “both parties agree to the importance of parliamentary scrutiny and the work of [parliamentary] committees.”
Yet in the same paragraph we get this: “Both parties agree to communicate regarding any issues which could impede the government’s ability to function or cause unnecessary obstructions to legislation review, studies and work plans at committees.”
For “unnecessary obstructions,” read “ideas we don’t support.” For “agree to communicate” read “agree to silence any opposition.”
This is not the people’s Parliament.
What should Trudeau and Singh have settled on? Save medicare. That’s it.
Here in B.C., one in three health-care workers say they want to quit in the next two years.
No need to mention the desperate shortage of family doctors or long wait times for surgery.
Pretending we can afford a new dental program or a national pharmacare plan, when we cannot afford the basics of any decent health-care program, is obscene.
Every nickel Ottawa intends to spend on this deal should be shipped to the provinces in the form of transfer payments, in return for an assurance the money will be spent exclusively on health-care services.
This is a transformative moment. The prime minister and his NDP colleague have emasculated Parliament and settled on a wish list that sells the country short.
