In her New Year’s Message, Governor General Michaëlle Jean said

“As a New Year dawns, we are filled with a renewed sense of hope. The days, weeks and months ahead may be whatever we imagine them to be and will be whatever we make of them. But let us be realistic: the challenges are considerable and have caused a great deal of anxiety”.

She refers among other things to the global recession and the unprecedented political crisis that shook the country in late November/early December.

The Governor General notes “how important it is for us to work together—nations, governments, societies, businesses, organizations, individuals, side by side”.

She observed that a “fend for yourself’ mentality has no place in an interdependent world… Given the magnitude of the challenges before us, the time has come for us to invent new ways of living together”.

The Times & Transcript proffered a similar Editorial message to support its contention that all Members of parliament should “accept the results of the last election to make the minority Conservative government work”.

Let’s put that into context: only 37.6% of voters in Canada cast their ballots for the Conservative Party in the last election.

Sadly, 9,571,035 people stayed home and did not vote.

The Liberals and the NDP, together gathered support from 44.4% of voters. The Conservatives have 143 of the 308 seats in Parliament. The Liberals and NDP together have 113.

To gain the confidence of the House and pass legislation, either the Conservatives or a Liberal/NDP coalition would require support from the Bloc Quebecois.

This is not to argue for a coalition, only for the legitimacy of a coalition. Contrary to what some would tell you, A Liberal/NDP coalition would have every bit as much a right to govern as does the Reformed Conservative Alliance.

The question facing Parliamentarians later this month will be one of trust. Can they trust the current Prime Minister to work in the cooperative spirit proposed by the Governor General? If the answer is no, could a Liberal/NDP coalition, in the best interests of the country govern in a spirit of true cooperation. If the answer is no, we could be faced with another election in a few weeks.

On the matter of trust, how can we trust a man who legislates “fixed election dates” and then ignores the legislation when it suits his fancy?

How can we trust a man, who promises budget surpluses during the election, then turns on a dime to provide support to Canada’s financial institutions, help bail out the auto industry, finance a spending package and create huge deficits for the next few years?

How can we trust a Prime Minister who presents an “economic update” with promises of legislation that would strip opposition parties of funding, undermine equality of pay for women, remove the fundamental right of federal civil servants to strike, offer no plan to address our economic challenges and then days later withdraws the offending irritants when faced with defeat.

How can we trust a man who is so obsessed with personal power, he asks the Governor General to prorogue Parliament o avoid defeat, a man who makes virtually all issues matters of confidence and then dares the opposition to defeat him?

How can we trust a Prime Minister who when he finds himself in a corner lashes out at the people of Quebec by pejoratively calling their duly elected Bloc Members of Parliament “separatists”?

How can we trust a man who for years campaigned for an elected Senate and then appoints 18 new senators, a man who introduced the notion of Parliamentary review of judicial appointments and then appoints a Supreme Court judge without review? How can we trust a man who would make these appointments while on a sabbatical enabled only by grace of the Governor General?

In a few weeks, three parties, representing 52.8% of voters may choose to deny this man and his party the confidence of the House. In that event, the Governor General would have the option of calling an election or asking the Liberals and the NDP to form a coalition government.

The Harper government and a large segment of the media have already tried to frame such an event as everything from a constitutional crisis to a total breakdown of society that would undermine our economic recovery. In my view, there will only be crisis if the current governing party is allowed to hold Parliament hostage in an attempt to further its personal ideology.

As the Governor General has wisely counseled “the time has come for us to invent new ways of living together”.

Whether by coalition or election, I think that may be possible.

W.E. (Bill) Belliveau is a Shediac resident and Moncton business consultant. He can be contacted at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com Atlantic Insight is a published Blog inventory of opinion articles published weekly in New Brunswick's print media as written by W.E. (Bill) Belliveau, who is a resident of Shediac, New Brunswick, and small business owner, operating his Moncton-based marketing consultancy, Bell Strategic. He can be reached by e-mail at mailto:bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com