Government in Waiting - Opposition has to act like it!

I watch opposition parties and marvel at their version of government-in-waiting.

It is truly revealing to be on such a party's email list. A lot of very well written and well researched stuff comes out opposing the governing party of the day in whatever jurisdiction.

The method of opposing is where my marvelling starts.

Opposition parties level a constant barrage of accusations of incompetence, ignorance, negligence, wrong-headedness, sneakiness and sometimes just plain old evil at the governing party.

I suspect that I am not the only person for whom a steady diet of righteous indignation finally has an effect opposite of what the senders intended. I finally think to myself, "Quit whining and do something about the situation already!"

Even if every little detail of government decision-making and activity or lack of it deserves condemnation, I still can't help but think, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it. These guys are clowns. How did they get to control the levers of power anyway?"

Then I think, "Oops! They were elected! Oh no! Were those nincompoops elected by people of questionable judgment who the opposition now thinks will suddenly show great judgment and elect the opposition, the government-in-waiting?"

I really think constant attacks are counterproductive.

An opposition should act like a government-in-waiting instead of waiting and waiting and waiting until the governing party simply can't be stomached anymore and a mass protest vote throws them out. I think I might see some of that going on in Alberta.

No government-in-waiting has presented itself to the satisfaction of Albertans. The electorate seems to becoming convinced that a change is good. I mean look at all the examples of incompetence that have been endlessly pointed out by the opposition.

But whom to support? A strange new party has arisen that no one really knows very well. That seems to be in its favour as it seems to get to know a party is to learn to distrust it. This new party doesn't seem to be much more of a government-in-waiting than the old opposition party. But it is attracting people with previous government experience to itself. It has been saying it will do some specific things better than the current government. The electorate sort of know some of the people leading the new party even if they don't know the party.

It looks like this new party could become the de facto government-in-waiting, sort of by default.

On the federal scene, we have the same kind of opposition tactic - attack, attack attack.

You know, I think that all this attack stuff that the current federal government also used to do when in opposition and Alberta's current governing party has done even while in government, has soured the electorate to politics in general. The electorate and its media representatives have become extremely cynical. If a politician was to hand a bucket of water to a person whose house is burning, it could be refused. The person is likely to think some even greater tragedy will be triggered by taking that politician's bucket of water.

Lately we have had some interesting positive examples of government-in-waiting activity.

The Alberta opposition worked hard to understand what the energy industry in Alberta needed to have government do to support it in becoming successful once again. We have the opposition going around the province to see what the people need to have happen in the restructuring of healthcare.

Federally, the opposition put forward Bill C248 to support immigration to Canada that Canada has known it needs for the last thirty years. The opposition has also put forward bills S-241 and S-242 to change the regulation of credit and debit card transactions in keeping with strengthening financial regulations in response to lessons learned in the recent and current financial crisis.

These are thoughtful acts intended to remedy what the sponsoring parliamentarians see as serious shortcomings in Canada's statutory and regulatory infrastructure.

These are four examples of opposition acting as government-in-waiting.

What happens then?

Heard anything about the energy sector consultation in the form of proposed statutes and regulations or procedural changes to address the needs uncovered through that effort? Heard anything about proposals suggested for restructuring healthcare (not drafted as the process is still young) that can be shown to reflect the needs of the electorate and that are not already written up in a policy manual even before the public consultation process began?

Heard about the senators and their supporting parliamentarians engaging in public consultations in support of the proposed bills and any amendments to them? Heard about the opposition refusing to support its own proposed bill C248!

We almost had government-in-waiting! But not quite.

It's hard for me to understand why oppositions don't stick to their proposals to try to turn them into reality. That's the kind of tenacity and courage that I think the electorate can relate to. What if the government steals the ideas and claims them as their own? Who cares! Even the opposition has to remember that it has to represent all the electorate, not just those that elected them. It then has to pick a priority issue and stick to it until the desired outcome is achieved or the government quashes the effort against the interests of the electorate.

Opposition is government. Opposition has to act like it!

Mike