The Throne Speech

This week, the Trudeau government will unveil its throne speech. Robin Sears writes that the event will provide all our political parties with an opportunity to press the reset button:

Let us hope that the pain we have been through together, the power of ritual and ceremony, which is always part of the opening of Parliament, will tilt the political scales a little more toward statesmanship than showmanship. (We will now have to invent a gender neutral description of that leadership quality. Most of the statesmen in this pandemic are women.)

This truly is  a time for statesmanship:

Let’s debate the detail and direction of massive new spending. But let’s drop the scare mongering please: “We are creating debt-crushed lives for our grandchildren.” And the government might try, a little more graciously, to accept demands for constructive change instead of branding their opponents as simply irresponsible.

Jagmeet Singh, Chrystia Freeland, John Horgan, and Doug Ford (mostly), have avoided silly partisan showboating. Hyperpartisan leaders of every hue would do well to emulate their approach. The highest approval ratings from Canadian voters have so far gone to those leaders they judge to have placed Canadians’ safety and security above partisan advantage.

We should debate how, how fast and how much, when we talk about child care, pharmacare and strengthening public health infrastructure. Those and other social justice issues must form part of our agenda to build a new normal. On the left the temptation will be to say, “Too little, too late!” to anything promised in the Speech from the Throne. Pundits and politicians to the right will default to, “Too much, too green, too reckless!” I think most Canadians would prefer, “A good start, perhaps, but here are three ways we could make it better..”

The throne speech should be the beginning of a discussion -- not the beginning of an election campaign. We'll soon know which it will be.

Image: CPAC