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Does Harper Still Believe in Atlantic Canada’s “Culture of Defeat”?

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Wouldn’t I love to be a fly on the wall inside the federal conservative caucus this week. It must feel like ground zero in there with casualties mounting and nothing but scorched earth as far as the eye can see.

If everything goes according to schedule the federal budget bill will go to a final vote by Friday. The decisions some MPs make at that time will determine if they survive inside their often autocratic party, if they become outcasts in their home provinces and even the very future of the party in much of Atlantic Canada.

When it was just NDP Premier Lorne Calvert fighting the new equalization formula the Harper government could spin it as party politics. When the PC Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador went on the attack he was written off as another hot headed Newfie. In Harper’s world, as long as his MPs were kept in line and Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald was content to discuss the problem behind closed doors, the train was solidly on the track. I don’t believe he expected the kind of derailment that was about to happen.

Last week, despite aggressive arm twisting and threats, one of the longest serving, most highly respected and level headed Conservative MPs in Ottawa, Bill Casey, took his party and the PM to task over their broken promises and lies. To paraphrase Mr. Casey, there are 18 separate points in the budget that affect the Atlantic Accord. Canada’s word should be taken as gospel. When you can’t trust the government of Canada to respect a signed contract with two of its own provinces, that word becomes worthless.

That was a blow that hit the party much harder than anything else that had been thrown at them since the budget was released but if they thought the worst had come they were all mistaken.

Until now Nova Scotia’s Rodney Macdonald had been very restrained in his public comments, preferring instead to discuss the issue internally and support the Conservative party line. That changed this weekend, following the stand by Bill Casey and a letter to the Chronicle Herald by finance minister Jim Flaherty.

In the letter Flaherty denied any new deal was in the works and once again claimed that Nova Scotia was not being short changed over offshore revenues. Apparently Casey’s stand, Flaherty’s comments, Harper’s continued strength in the polls and MacDonald’s slip to 29% support all combined to convince the Premier he had no choice but to stand up, find a voice and add fuel to the ongoing firestorm.

This week MacDonald said the finance minister is actively trying to undermine the negotiation process. The Premier is also lobbying the senate to delay the budget bill and asking Nova Scotia MPs to follow Casey’s lead and vote against the budget.

Boy oh boy, the walls of meeting rooms all over Parliament Hill must be vibrating to the point of near collapse, phones are ringing off the hook and blackberries across the Country are likely melting under the stress. It’s about time.

When an NDP Premier attacks a Conservative PM that’s one thing, but when two conservative Premier’s and a respected conservative MP all go on the attack it’s a completely different story.

The loose threads of the Alliance/Conservative/Reform/PC party are starting to unravel under the unrelenting pressure. These things happen when a quasi-coalition minority government reneges on written promises, unilaterally changes bilateral contracts and expects to maintain control of the situation.

They say that in politics a week is a lifetime, and it often is. With that in mind Harper, Flaherty and the rest probably believed this whole sordid mess would slip to the backburner in short order. It hasn’t and it isn’t going to.

What they didn’t count on is the tenacity of the people of Atlantic Canada, a place Harper once referred to as having “a culture of defeat”.

In fairness though, it’s easy to understand why the PM believed there was a culture of defeat in Atlantic Canada. Most of his exposure to Atlantic Canadians has come through his association with spineless MPs like Hearn, MacKay, Keddy, Doyle and Manning. Is it any wonder he figured he’d have no problem riding rough shod over the place?

It makes me wonder what his personal opinion is of the people of Saskatchewan, based on inactivity of that province’s MPs, who also refuse to stand up for their constituents. The impression can’t be a good one.

By Myles Higgins

@ June 11, 2007