Test for the Tories
Bishop, Jordan
Canadian elections TEST FOR THE TORIES MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS WHEN prime minister Joe Clark assumed office last spring, with 136 seats, his conservative minority government faced a...
...The elections have been called for February 18, which is a bad time for elections in Canada...
...the Socreds affirmed that they would judge each vote on its merits and act accordingly...
...This is a serious distortion of the facts...
...The Tories insist that we have been living beyond our means and that we must reform...
...Trudeau's resignation a leadership convention was scheduled for March of 1980 and everyone agreed that this effectively put off any talk of elections until after the new Liberal leader had been chosen...
...For this campaign, they were to be "the socialists...
...Carter would not allow a recession in an election year in the United States...
...The New Democratic Party appears to be moving towards a campaign that appeals to this sentiment: that it is time for a real change...
...Ontario Tory premier Bill Davis, whose "Big Blue Machine' ' has kept the Tories in office there for over thirty years, had hard words about the budget when it came down...
...The people wanted a change from the free-spending Liberals and they will get it...
...During the election campaign the Tories had made a number of specific promises...
...One Social Credit member crossed the floor to join the conservatives, giving them one more seat and leaving a less-than-benign feeling for the Tories among the remaining Socreds...
...Commonweal: 72...
...This was attacked by opposition members because it discriminates against people living in rental housing, because it is to be financed by even more regressive taxation, and because it takes money from the poor to give to the well-to-do...
...For Western Tories and Socreds (ideologically, there is not much difference between them), this is a nasty thing to say, just as a socialist is a nasty thing to be...
...Clark seemed to feel that the NDP were a real danger...
...In either case, they had no choice at all but to campaign on that budget...
...As the campaign opened Mr...
...Had their government survived, the budget would have represented a wager that Mr...
...There is little doubt that in the elections of last May the Tories won their minority government on a vote that was anti-Trudeau rather than pro-Clark...
...It is quite possible, although it would be denied by all concerned, that the Big Blue Machine may provide less than enthusiastic support for Joe Clark's brand of Toryism...
...The Canadian economy is very sensitive to changes in the U.S...
...As the campaign began the Liberals were without a leader, Mr...
...Only a major miracle, of the kind required for canonizations, will give the Tories any substantial representation from Quebec...
...the opposition blames the government for bringing down a budget that no serious opposition could live with...
...In a style that has become traditional with British Columbia Social Credit politicians, he refused to refer to the NDP by name...
...Trudeau having announced his resignation in November...
...Trudeau to stay on to fight the elections...
...The promises that induced Ontario to give them a minority government are a shambles...
...The higher taxes, laid on in the interest of conservation and energy self-sufficiency, included a whopping eighteen cents per gallon increase in excise tax on gasoline and increased federal excise taxes on booze and cigarettes...
...All this complicates matters considerably...
...They would get rid of Petrocan—Canada's public-sector petroleum companymove the Canadian Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, make mortgage interest payments deductible for income tax purposes, cut taxes and government spending...
...Clark announced, on May 23, that he would govern as if he had a majority, he said in effect that he was not going to discuss policies and programs with any opposition members...
...With three Tories absent from the House, two Liberals brought in from the hospital for the vote and only one Liberal absent, the result was a vote of 139 to 133 against the government...
...Some commentators spoke of a sort of creeping madness, the unleashing of inexorable forces, of events beyond the control of the participants...
...Doing well in Ontario got them a slender minority government...
...Whatever happens to the economy in the short run, the budget deficit must be reduced...
...Since their budget guaranteed a greater demand for unemployment insurance, the price would go up...
...At the time of Mr...
...Whether the budget was deliberately provocative, or whether the Tories in all innocence really thought they could get away with it is still an open question...
...When the budget was defeated, there was talk of a special leadership convention in January, but the Liberals, after a fairly intensive consultation, asked Mr...
...Clark and the Tories will no doubt continue to blame the winter elections on "the socialists'' and the Liberals...
...It would not be politic to turf out the new government without giving them a chance...
...budgetary deficit was not enough to force them to abandon their vote-catching Christmas present to homeowners: a tax-credit plan for mortgage interest and property taxes...
...It could be as exciting as the last elections were dull: we are to be treated to the rare spectacle of a major political party going to the country on a platform of higher taxes, higher unemployment, higher inflation, all justified in the name of deferred gratification...
...The dicey arithmetic of parliamentary government assumed new complexities as Parliament was finally convened early in October...
...The first real test was the budget, due to be brought down in December...
...In May the Tories did well in Ontario...
...It could be argued that their unexpected good showing in the West deprived the Tories of a majority in May...
...The anti-Trudeau vote can go to the Tories or the NDP...
...It promised high interest rates, higher unemployment, double-digit inflation, higher taxes and higher premiums for unemployment insurance...
...Poaching is allowed, but poachers must be prepared to take the consequences...
...Canadian elections TEST FOR THE TORIES MASSACRE OF THE INNOCENTS WHEN prime minister Joe Clark assumed office last spring, with 136 seats, his conservative minority government faced a combined opposition of 146 seats...
...The Gallup poll reported 47 percent for the Liberals...
...For the Tories it is very much a matter of principle...
...27 percent for the Tories, and 24 percent for the NDP...
...The day after the elections Joe Clark proclaimed to the nation and the world that—with 36 percent of the popular vote—he had a mandate to govern Canada and that he would govern as if he had a majority government...
...And the budget did not go down well in Ontario, except perhaps among Bay Street stockbrokers...
...Petulant Tories cried' 'foul'' and complained that they were not given a chance to govern...
...Ontario voters could accept Clark's challenge and vote for "the socialists" of the NDP...
...Hardly anyone dares to make a prediction...
...Routine motions of non-confidence by the NDP and the Liberals were as routinely defeated as a sufficient number of Liberals were conveniently absent...
...When Mr...
...With a self-righteous arrogance that rivals the sometimes arrogant Trudeau at his worst, the Tories proceded to govern as if they indeed did have a majority...
...The Tories clearly intended to stick to one of their most sacred principles: that money should stay in the hands of the rich, who can be trusted to use it in a responsible manner...
...Of these he could expect to count on the support of six Social Credit members from Quebec, giving the minority government an edge of three seats if, as expected, the incumbent Liberal speaker of the house were retained by the new government...
...Yet even the need to reduce the...
...In other words, there would be no formal consultation with any of the opposition parties...
...economy, and things are already slow...
...The increase in premiums for unemployment insurance also appealed to the conservative devotion to the supply and demand models of classical economics...
...Most observers agree that in one key element the elections will indeed be very much like the May elections: they 15 February 1980: 71 will be decided in Ontario...
...Across the country, people are still trying to figure out just what happened...
...The abrupt increase in gasoline prices was too much for the five remaining Socred members, all from rural Quebec districts...
...Clark continued to govern as if he had a majority...
...A vote for either the NDP or the Liberals is a vote against the Tory budget...
...JORDAN bishop (Jordan Bishop, a regular contributor, teaches at the College of Cape Breton in Nova Scotia...
...The budget, aimed at restoring the country's economy after sixteen years of Liberal government, was "realistic" and "tough...
...Canadians looking for someone to vote against still have a variety of choices...
...As the vote on the budget approached they announced that they would abstain...
...Right now, one guess is as good as another, and most observers are not even guessing...
...Trudeau will come back from a retirement that had not yet become effective, foresee a repeat of last May's elections, a personality contest between Trudeau and Clark, with the hope that the budget might get lost in the shuffle...
...They would go it alone...
...The government blames the opposition for forcing winter elections...
...Some Tories, cheered by the fact that Mr...
...An NDP government is most unlikely, but a strong showing by the third party in Ontario could effectively spoil the chances of either old-guard party for a majority government...
...There was no coalition...
...By the time of the budget the attack on Petrocan had for the moment been tabled, the Embassy in Israel remained in Tel Commonweal: 70 Aviv, the deductibility of mortgage interest had been moved to the other end of the tax form as a tax credit limited, for next year, to three-hundred and seventy-five dollars, interest rates had gone up to over fifteen percent, governmental spending had in fact increased and tax increases required to pay for mortgage tax credits for homeowners and reduce the federal deficit were calculated by Herb Gray, Liberal finance critic, at 39 percent for most people and 30 percent for homeowners...
...There is in fact a long tradition in Canadian politics of voting "against'' someone or something rather than voting "for" a leader or a platform...
...Even had the Socreds voted with the government, it would not have been enough...
...Their platform was presented to Parliament and the nation the week of December 10, debated in televised sessions in Parliament for three days and defeated in the Commons the night of December 13...
...In November by-elections the New Democratic Party took the seat left by the late John G. Diefenbaker and the Liberals retained two others without difficulty...
...This may in fact have convinced the Tories that they could get away with a budget that no intelligent minority government would normally have considered...
Vol. 107 • February 1980 • No. 3
