A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a column outlining 10 reasons why the Conservatives shouldn't be given another term. Unfortunately, due to Thanksgiving Monday, it didn't get printed.
Some of those reasons are issues the Liberal government might want to consider and address.
The first is Mike Duffy and the Senate. Regardless of whether or not what Duffy did is illegal, he is the tip of an iceberg as there are clearly numerous issues with how the Senate governs itself. With 33 senators are under investigation for possible wrong doing with their expense accounts, the structure is obviously not working.
More fundamentally, the role of the Senate in governance is a bigger issue. Do we need a chamber of "sober second thought?" I would vote "yes." Governance at any level needs to have checks and balances to ensure proposed legislation is in the best interest of the majority of Canadian.
But is the Senate the best way to do this? As we are presently constituted, it is the only way we have to do this. However, that doesn't mean it is the best way. Our system of government was constructed over a century ago. Times have changed. Maybe it is time to rethink government as well.
In any case, there is a huge mess needing a thorough cleaning. Outgoing Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been a bit like the roommate who trashes the place before moving out that Justin Trudeau and the Liberals will now have to clean up.
The second reason I had for the departure of the Conservatives is Bill C-51. My advice to the incoming government would be to repeal the legislation and start all over again. In its present form, it doesn't make a lot of sense.
Ironically, it is far more intrusive into the average daily life of the average Canadian than the long gun registry ever was but while many Conservative supporters opposed the long gun registry, they seem to favour Bill C-51. Go figure.
There are some things in the bill that might be worth keeping. They are few and far between. However it will not keep us intrinsically safe from terrorism. This is the message the former government never really understood.
In a world where weapons are readily available and anyone can go on a killing spree claiming it is for religious, political or ideological purposes, terrorism is going to happen. The only way of really stopping it would be to ban all weapons of any sort within the country. That's never going to happen!
The question is then how to move forward in trying to ensure terrorism within our borders is at a minimum. Keeping surveillance on the entire population all the time is not the answer - something that has been repeatedly realized south of the border. Neither is giving the police and other agencies special powers to deal with supposed terrorists.
Addressing terrorism is about getting to the root cause which is hard to do and will take a lot of work across the globe. It is why governments like to come up with Band-Aid solutions. They are easier than hard work.
The third issue the incoming government will need to address is the divisiveness created during the campaign over the niqab. According to one Muslim women interviewed on the CBC, there are less than 300 women in Canada wearing the garment and yet it was an issue in the campaign for far too long.
Why?
I would suggest the wearing of a niqab was symptomatic of a larger issue which no one really wants to talk about.
Canada is a country of immigrants. With the exception of First Nations people, we all arrived here from elsewhere in the last 400 years. For the longest time, immigration was predominantly from European countries and predominantly Caucasian.
However, over the past 40 years, Canada has increasingly opened its doors to people from other areas of the world. For the most part, Canadians are more than happy to see new immigrants. But there are always a few people - or maybe even more than a few people - who want to keep things the way they were.
This results in issues around the use of Chinese on signs in Richmond or the teaching of other languages in our schools. The tension arises from the clash of Canada as a land which welcomes immigration leading to a multicultural society and the desire to maintain Canadian society as it was 50 years ago.
The wearing of a niqab is just one example of the tension which still lies within. We do not have the overt racism of the Americans but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
If stopping terrorism is hard work, addressing racism will be a monumental challenge. This is not an issue of Mr. Harper's making but it will not be going away any time soon.
