Universal health care and the Canada Pension Plan: brought to you by a minority government.
There is much speculation already about how long the new federal government in Ottawa will last, but history tells us that minority governments don’t have to be a bad thing, and they can get significant work done — see the examples above.
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What is needed is for our elected representatives to act like the adults they are and negotiate compromises that will benefit our country as a whole. That’s what the voters have told them they want, and it’s in their best interests, and ours, to work together.
We are faced with too many important issues for them to get bogged down in infighting and intractable positions.
Five of Vancouver Island’s seven ridings have chosen the NDP representative to head to Ottawa as our representative once again, to bring our diverse voices to the table.
As members of a party that could hold the balance of power this is a real opportunity to bring our region’s concerns and hopes for the future forward on the national stage.
These five MPs — and their two Green party colleagues — must be willing to collaborate, listen to, and work with others to get the work done. We expect nothing less.
The difference is, this time around, the government will have considerable incentive to do the same.
We do not believe that Canadians want to go back to the polls right away, and all of our elected officials should be mindful of this as they take their seats in the House of Commons.
Things like more action on the environment, as the youth of this country are telling us we need, and a national pharmacare plan are entirely doable with a minority government — and those are just a couple of examples. Much like the minority governments of Lester B. Pearson that brought us universal health care and the Canada Pension Plan (and our Canadian flag), we hope our politicians are looking at this as an opportunity to really move Canada forward.
It has been done. It can be done again.
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