Whose Cheap Partisan Purposes?

A simple and honest reading of the international economic recovery teetering on the brink of falling back into disarray with the fiscal weaknesses of Ireland, Iceland, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Belgium and others trying to nudge their economies back into health, would inform anyone with an interest that those countries whose economies have picked up can still spiral backward.

The horrendous shock that the third largest economy of the world has suffered through a triple misfortune should serve as a lesson in the potential for disaster that can befall the most prepared through a single act of Nature compounded by serial fall-outs. Stock markets around the world followed the impact of the stupendous quake, the tsunami and the failure of nuclear safeguards now assailing Japan.

The price of all manner of basic goods will be affected, as will be currencies around the world. Stability in production and consumption through the faltering of one very impressive economic engine falling into a state of huge disrepair will impact the entire world economy. While the world rushes to desperately attempt to deliver aid to the fearsomely fallen giant that Japan is, there is also no guarantee that an ultimate disaster will not eventuate.

So when Prime Minister Stephen Harper cautions that now is not the time to shed one government that has proven, despite its minority status, that it has the ability to govern well and has the approval of a substantial percentage of the voting public, he is entirely correct. The opposition parties in Parliament have an agenda to one way or another destabilize the government and bring on an election the public has no wish for.

Most particularly at a time when stability is required in the face of dire upheavals throughout the world. In characterizing the Prime Minister's sober reflection on the situation, the opposition states it to be reflecting "cheap, partisan purposes". It is not. For there is nothing to be gained by bringing down this government through a decision made to reject the upcoming budget sight unseen.

And there is much to lose by launching the country into an election at such a time of global financial uncertainties. Canada has weathered the recent global economic downturn relatively unscathed, although we are still not in solid fiscal shape and our deficit and debt represent a far less healthy economy than obtained before the downturn.

"It does not take very much to make us all - not just in Canada, the United States all around the world - to make everybody very worried about what's coming next in the economy. We've been through a difficult time. It's getting better. It's still quite fragile. So I don't want to predict how that's going to unfold. I think the Japanese will find their way of coping, but the fact of the matter is this should be a wake-up that we cannot afford to take our focus off the economy and get into a bunch of unnecessary political games. Or, as I said, an opportunistic, unnecessary election that nobody is asking for." Prime Minister Stephen Harper

He is quite right in that assessment. On the face of it, the Conservatives are right now higher in the polls by far than any of the opposition parties. There is a distinct possibility that were an election to be called the Conservatives, based on their performance the past six years as a responsible minority government, would receive a slight majority vote. They have gained the confidence of the voters.

What have they to lose, after all, in the event of another election? Leading in voters' minds, they stand to gain again, either as a minority or a majority government. While the opposition parties gnash their teeth in constant frustration over their inability to unseat a government that has shown itself capable and worthy of trust.

What do they add to the value of governance with their constant critiques of the Conservative-led government? Other than to illustrate in full living colour their blatant and continual partisan bickering and back-stabbing? Their lack of commitment to the public weal.

Their unwillingness to pull together with the government when clearly the voters have no wish to install them to replace the Conservatives.