Our Choices

Canadians now have the opportunity to anticipate some dramatic scenarios to play out in the House of Commons when Parliament resumes. The resourceful, redoubtable, and often too-impetuously partisan Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada, will face off against a political adversary as potentially skilled at barbed messaging as he is. Their divergent philosophies, each clinging to an ideology scorned by the other, will ensure some fascinating verbal fireworks.

On the other hand, the reality is that simply because they are both intelligent and reasonable people, each claiming to have the best interests of the country and its people first in mind, they will doubtless grasp opportunities for co-operation. Let alone the fact that this Conservative-led government is still a minority one, and must, as a result, tread with fastidious care, lest it once again engage the ire of the opposition.

And not to forget the tattered reputation of the Liberals, the dire state of their finances, and the demoralized condition of their parliamentary members, still reeling from the fall-out from former tainted Liberal behaviour while in governance, and still smarting from their misfortune in selecting utterly inappropriate leadership material to bring them back into popular voting territory among an amnesiac public.

And the fact is that the current prime minister is an astute, clever politician, one with experience under his belt, and the ability to recall, from time to time, that it's in his party's best interests - and his own - to remain cautiously hedged toward the centre of the political spectrum. While the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada is a political ingenue, whose away-from-home politics don't necessarily reflect the values and experiences that Canadian voters look for.

Michael Ignatieff has embarked on a steep learning curve. Stephen Harper is honing a steep curb on his autocratic impulses and his partisan barbs and knock-outs. For the time being, Canadians have it right as revealed by a recently revealed Ipsos Reid poll. Interviewed Canadians still believe, by a respectable margin, that Stephen Harper has the potential to represent as the best possible prime minister for our times.

For guiding us through troubling times, for managing the economy, for getting things done, and representing Canada's interests on the international scene. Canadians still harbour some misgivings about a perceived "hidden agenda", but despite that, they view Mr. Harper as the most trustworthy federal leader we have at the present time.

Which is reason enough, given his excellent past performance in some key areas of governance, to give him room for continued administration.