Thursday, April 26, 2012

Whip It Good

Stephen Woodworth's  person-hood motion will not be defeated by Bob Rae's whipping or not whipping his caucus against the measure.  It will be defeated because Stephen Harper needs it to be defeated or he will see his real agenda--deregulation, rolling back environmental protections--go up in flames as he panders to the CPoC right wing.  Nevertheless,  Mulcair's move to whip his own people, despite their already unanimous opposition to the measure, was a pretty clever trick.  Since he's become NDP leader, opposition politics has become more about broad rhetorical gestures that project "strength" and "leadership" and less about the kind of nuance, statesmanship, and appeal to democratic principles that  Mr. Rae would like  to offer.  But that's tough.  In today's Ottawa, Rae's equivocation looks like weakness or collaboration, and if he can't play the new game he should retire from it.

2 comments:

Kirbycairo said...

Am I missing something? I don't see follow how Harper risks his agenda of deregulation etc. Is it because an attempt to regulate abortion would eventually cause him to lose the next election?

I think it is true that Rae (and statesman's politics in general) is in real trouble nowadays. In a context in which honor and dignity among politicians seems to mean little to nothing it is like whispering in a windstorm.

bigcitylib said...

Yeah, if Harper was really serious about letting this motion go through everything else would be in jeopardy in 15. Was this too cryptic?