Canadians are going to the polls now that the federal government has been defeated due to a historic charge of contempt.
Canada's 40th Parliament came to an end Friday after opposition parties passed a non-confidence motion against the ruling Conservative government.
The motion, tabled by Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff Wednesday, asked MPs to agree with Monday's ruling by the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs that the government was in contempt of Parliament, and as such had lost the confidence of the House. Its passage forced Prime Minister Stephen Harper to ask the Governor General to call an election.
Edmonton-St. Albert member of Parliament Brent Rathgeber said the motion disappointed him, calling the recent committee hearings on the matter "a star chamber" (arbitrary and unfair). "The decision to find the government in contempt had nothing to do with evidence. It had everything to do with politics."
Serious offence, says former MP
Contempt of Parliament is a serious charge normally levelled against individuals, said John Williams, former Conservative Edmonton-St. Albert MP and current CEO of the Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption. It typically arises when someone fails to comply with Parliament's demands by lying or refusing to answer a question, as happened with RCMP deputy commissioner Barbara George in 2008. It can lead to jail time, but usually leads to public censure.
Parliament controls government spending, Williams said, and wanted more information on the cost of the government's crime bills, corporate tax cuts and F-35 fighter jet purchases before approving them. The government, for months, refused to release that information, claiming it was protected by cabinet confidence. That led to a complex series of procedural actions and Friday's contempt motion.
The government had asked MPs to vote on bills without telling them what they would cost, Williams said. "In essence, Parliament said, 'You want us to give you a blank cheque? We don't do that.'"
This is the first time in Canadian — and possibly Commonwealth — history that a government has been found in contempt of Parliament, Williams said. "The government is being held in contempt by Parliament, [which is] saying, 'You have broken the rules of democracy.'"
Rathgeber said that opposition parties had said in public they would find the government in contempt before they even started their hearings on the matter, and that the government had disclosed "volumes and volumes of documents" on the costs of the bills in question.
Government officials did table documents earlier this month, noted a report from the parliamentary budget officer — long after they were requested — but there were "significant gaps" between the information MPs had asked for and what they were given "which will limit the ability of parliamentarians to fulfil their fiduciary obligations."
Parliament has the right to ask government any question it wants, Williams noted, and the government is obliged to answer. "I was disappointed when the government stonewalled Parliament and said, 'You don't need to know these things.'"
The government is accountable to Parliament, he said, which is accountable to the people. "This is Parliament upholding people's right to know what the government is doing."
Majority? Coalition?
Canadians are deeply unhappy with their politicians calling an election at this point, said Chaldeans Mensah, chair of political science at Grant MacEwan University, and that could prompt them to elect a majority government.
"I don't see how the opposition parties under the current leadership can work with another minority Conservative government," Mensah continued, so a minority would likely lead to a NDP/Liberal coalition with Bloc support, one that would vote down the government and ask the governor general to let them rule as a coalition. "There would be a massive reaction here in the west against such a government."
