Mr Harper: Two Very Good, Partially Serious Ideas for Your Consideration

Don't get rid of the $2-per-vote subsidy, and give Bob Rae a call.

Stephen Harper enraged the opposition last week when he recommitted to eliminating the subsidy system that annually gives federal parties $2 for each vote they got in the last election. But writing in the Vancouver Sun Duff Conacher has a suggestion to please the opposition and Harper alike. The system should not be eliminated because it “is one of the most democratic aspects of Canada's political finance system,” Conacher writes, “as it gives a cash boost to parties that do not elect as many members of parliament as they should because of the flaws of our first-past-the-post voting system.” Instead, Conacher says that the subsidy should be cut to $1 per vote, which would force parties to still rely heavily on their own fundraising, one of Harper’s stated aims. But the real rub to Conacher’s plan is his suggestion that the subsidy to parties operating in only one province should be cut to 75 cents because they have less operating costs than truly federal parties. It’s smart, it’s democratic, and it achieves Harper’s other stated aim of cutting off federal funding to the Bloc Quebecois. Win-win-win.

“[I]sn’t it time Stephen Harper appointed [Bob] Rae as his foreign minister?” asks Andrew Coyne in Maclean’s. This sounds far-fetched but stranger things have happened in Canadian politics and Coyne makes a pretty good case. Rae has outflanked the Tories on the U.A.E. issue and the Afghan War, he has more credentials than any Tory, and his chances of getting into government with the Liberals are looking grim. It’s a good fit, writes Coyne, as Rae’s views seem “more conservative than the government’s: not only in the right, but on the right.” Coyne suggests that Rae crossing the floor would be beneficial for both the Liberals and Conservatives, as Rae’s rift with Michael Ignatieff is becoming detrimental to party unity. This doesn’t make much sense to us in The Mark Newsroom (the term “rats leaving a sinking ship” comes to mind) but making the Liberals look bad is all the more reason for Harper to try. It won’t happen of course, but then again ...