This week is an interesting one in Canadian politics. The 39th session of Pariliament kicks off today in Ottawa with the Speech from the Throne. Prime Minister Harper is expected to move quickly to introduce key pieces of legislation from the campaign including the highly publicized Accountability Legislation that is intended to prevent future Sponsorship Scandals from occuring.
This will be a tough session on the Prime Minister. With only 125 out of 308 seats in Parliament he must continue to engage opposition parties if he hopes to achieve anything at all. As well, an Ipsos poll yesterday, while suggesting most Canadians want some stability for at least a year, also shows that the majority of Canadians are in favour of forcing an election if the government doesn't fulfil its promises early on.
Making it even more difficult will be the dimishing "benefit of the doubt" attitude for Prime Minister Harper from the national press corps. While the tactic of controlling all access and managing each message to within an inch of its death has allowed the PM to appear very Prime Ministerial (dare we even say Presidential) the national press gang will not allow the honeymoon continue if they can't access and stories.
So the PM must appease opposition, the electorate and the press corp and, by all accounts he has about 30 days to do it all...talk about pressure!!
On the home front, Premier Bernard Lord is facing a struggle of his own as he continues to skate the line between saving his government and being forced into an election. His campaign style spending spree is just taunting the opposition to force an election call the Premier can say "We didn't want an election - just like New Brunswickers don't want an election. But since the big bad Liberals have forced one - look at all the money we've spent."
This is not a new election tactic. The federal Liberals used is just before the last federal election. Except the Premier is forgetting one important fact. The electorate is smarter than that and the campaign spending bonanza - while nice - does not ensure victory.
The debate this week on the good news provincial budget will be an interesting one and a real test for government.
So there you have it - the ongoing saga of two minorities - each with its challenges. Each trying to find that elusive middle ground that allows governments to stay in power term after term.
The real question however is how effective will the opposition parties be at exposing these weaknesses. If played right we could have two elections this year.
if not, both governments will live to fight another day...maybe even longer.
