Juanson World

Now that I am back in North America, I find the Canadian political situation to be fascinating. I was always one of those Americans who knew absolutely nothing about Canada other than hockey, Quebec, and maple syrup. Becoming friends with several Canadians when I was working in Costa Rica and learning of their external development programmes (gotta use the proper spelling) has made me gain an appreciation of our neighbors to the North. It's really interesting how most Americans don't really consider it a separate country, and in many ways Canada is tied economically to the States.

Prime Minister Paul Martin barely won the no-confidence vote yesterday when two independent lawmakers sided with his Liberal party. The opposition Conservatives in alliance with the Bloc Quebecios demanded the ousting of Martin in regards to a financial scandal in the 1990s. A few choice lines that I found interesting:

The prime minister tried to cast his close call in the best light. "We must move forward now in the spirit of cooperation," he told Parliament immediately after the vote. "We ask the opposition to join with us in a new effort to make this Parliament work for the people of Canada."

The clear loser was Stephen Harper, the leader of the Conservative Party, who tried to overthrow the Liberals in alliance with the separatist Bloc Québécois. But he promised to stay on the attack. "Tonight the Liberals won a Pyrrhic victory, one that will sow the seeds of its own destruction, one that will present our party with great opportunity," Mr. Harper said. Switching to French, he added, "I'm embarrassed and I deeply regret that our Parliament has decided this evening to maintain its confidence in a corrupt party."

Can you imagine a Democrat standing up in Congress and evoking nationalism, labeling the entire Republican party as corrupt? This scandal reminds me of Iran-Contra, in that Reagan claimed to know nothing and thus was able to avoid an outright political disaster:

Though Mr. Martin has insisted that he knew nothing about the suspected illicit campaign financing, he has been kept off-balance and weak since he took power in late 2003. To survive, he has been forced to veer left to secure the base of his party and win support from a smaller leftist party, forcing him in recent months to raise social spending and to abandon his pledge to join President Bush's missile defense program.

The confidence vote was the climax to weeks of heated exchanges, parliamentary filibustering and the specter of constitutional crisis.

The spectacle on the floor of House of Commons of members accusing one another of covering up criminal acts and questioning their patriotism served to elevate voter cynicism and rattle the Canadian dollar.

What remains clear is that Martin remains on shaky footing and must win over the opposition and public opinion if he has hopes of winning reelection when he calls his general election later this year.