Canada’s “natural governing party,” the Liberals, held their annual convention this weekend in Montreal, in an atmosphere of self-satisfaction. Posing for selfies on the floor was avuncular Nova Scotia MP Chris D’Entremont. The curious aspect in this scene: the “honorable gentleman” was until recently a Conservative MP. In recent weeks, the center-left Liberals have welcomed five defectors from other parties, Tories from the right and one defector from the leftist New Democratic Party.
Three vacancies in the House of Commons will be filled in byelections on Monday. Together with the defectors, the party of Prime Minister Mark Carney will have its cherished majority in the 314-member House of Commons. Carney can then govern at will. Parliamentary democracies work that way, unlike the U.S. Congress, currently experiencing a deadlock of democracy.
Donald Trump rescued the Canadian Liberals a little more than a year ago. Polls showed the party, then under an unpopular Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, cratering, polls estimating the party would win an estimated 55 seats in the 342-member parliament. But Trudeau stepped down as party leader and economist Carney was picked to replace him. The successful transplant saw the party rebound in the federal election a year ago, while not winning an outright majority, holding on to power heading a minority coalition.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, his hopes of power dashed by Trump, has reacted to defections from his caucus with fury, demanding that the defectors quit their seats and submit to the judgment of their ridings (districts). By-elections “would put the people back in charge of our democracy rather than having dirty backroom deals,” said Poilievre.
What will Carney do with his majority? Canada is a country long transfixed by “megaprojects,” examples being Hydro Quebec’s massive James Bay hydro project and Churchill Falls in nearby Labrador. (Both send electricity to New England states south of the border.) On the stump in Alberta years ago, former PM John Diefenbaker declared, “We have a plan to develop, what’s the name of your river here? Oh yes, the Red Deer River.”
Carney has taken advantage of the Trump threat by embarking on a variety of infrastructure and energy projects, such as mines for critical minerals in Northwest British Columbia. He is braving pipeline politics to benefit oil-rich Alberta and brushing aside objections from Quebec. Bulldozing of environmental objections is a feature of megaprojects.
Carney has summed up his goals, saying: “If it’s good for Canada, it’s good for the world”— an obvious reference to critical minerals. In a widely acclaimed speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland this winter, the PM spoke of aspirations for the Great White North to be a leader of the world’s “middle powers.”
The upshot has been for Canada to assert itself, in words of its national anthem, as the nation “true north strong and free.” The defection of Chris D’Entremont has resulted from this succession of events. His escort across the floor was fellow Nova Scotia MP Kody Blois. “It wasn’t a high pressure pitch,” said Blois, just “Chris, you’re in the wrong place.” As for D’Entremont, he said “I didn’t stray far from the middle.”
Mark Carney conversed with D’Entremont for 90 minutes. The prime minister is a Harvard man, former governor of the Bank of Canada and Bank of England. An adult life in corridors of power can be put aside for demands of the occasion, as was the case in the D’Entremont defection. Carney adopted an aw-shucks response to defections coming his way. “I am usually the last to know.”
Canada is these days united under competent Mandarin rule. Trump and Poilivre find themselves left in the cold.
This article also appears in Cascadia Advocate.
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