“They can do things that antagonize the opposition and not worry about it backfiring on them.” That’s what Royce Koop, a professor at the University of Manitoba who specializes in parliamentary politics, told the Hill times when asked about the government’s status in the House of Commons a couple weeks ago.
He was referring to the Liberal government’s bullishness, brought to you by the confidence and supply agreement with the NDP. Koop’s comments reflect an emerging view that the government now enjoys de facto majority status, with blanket support from the New Democrats in Parliament to move their entire agenda forward. It’s already starting to get a bit awkward for the NDP.
Since the Liberal–NDP agreement was made, the NDP has provided increasing support to the government to move legislation forward that is well outside of the scope of their agreement. The party has not only supported midnight sittings under Motion 11, but also several time allocation motions, which have been used as a multi-tool to move government legislation through 2nd reading and forward to committee after only one or two days of debate. This is an NDP reaction to Conservative efforts to delay and derail everything while they sort out their own leadership, but it risks making the NDP look like they think their job is to oppose Conservative parliamentary antics and help the Liberals pass anything and everything they want.
If Canadians start to take notice of what’s happening, the NDP is going to have to rethink their strategy and find ways to assert their independence. There is plenty of space for them to be a thoughtful, constructive and even propositional opposition party, as they have been in the past. But they have to find a way to look like more than a Liberal parliamentary patsy.
One way to do this that could get noticed would be refusal of support for the government’s aggressive use of time allocation on legislation that requires further consideration and debate. Especially as we get into these final sitting weeks, the government will be trying to push several pieces of legislation through all stages in the House. Some of these bills fall clearly within scope of the confidence & supply agreement, like Bill C-8 (Economic and Fiscal Update Implementation) and Bill C-19 (Budget Implementation) – the NDP has an obligation to help get these bills passed before the House rises. For others, such as the controversial Bill C-18, the Online News Act, which is being debated and “time allocated” with NDP support today – no such obligation exists. Nor should it.
We’ll be watching closely over the next couple weeks for signs the NDP is changing course and asserting itself as an opposition party again. Maybe they should help the Liberal government pass their key budget bills, satisfying the agreement between the two parties, and just go home for the summer before they give something away that they can’t take back.
