All the while… all through the House, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse

Well, well, well…. Wasn’t that a week of surprises? First was Tom Flanagan’s op-ed piece in the Globe, where he goes to bat for his student Stephen on the question of the legitimacy of “the coalition”.

The piece was surprising not just because it appeared to be a concerted effort to make the weaker argument look stronger, nor that Tom apparently thought Steve, one of his prize students, needed help. But more because, to me, it belied a pretty unsophisticated understanding of the Bloc and of Quebec. I won’t quibble here with the surface argument Professor Flanagan advanced, but I do think it is important to comment on the role the Bloc plays in Canada.

The Bloc’s full participation in the House is not a threat to Canadian unity; rather, it is a way of moderating and finessing separatism. As long as les Québécois are respected, by fully respecting those whom they send to Ottawa, they are less inclined toward separatism.

Pre-emptive attacks of the sort Flanagan, Harper and his boys have advanced against those who say they favour separatism strengthen the separatist movement; they don’t weaken it. Harper’s attempt to scare us with images of the socialist and separatist hordes helped the PQ do better in Monday’s Provincial election than they would have otherwise.

A second surprise was seeing Ed Broadbent come out a televised elevator singing “happy days are here again” after having “masterminded” the coalition. If this were evidence, in a month when 77,000 Canadians have lost their jobs, of the best political strategist of the left, we may all be in trouble.

A rather pleasant surprise this time

A third, this time pleasanter surprise, was seeing Bob Rae give up (at least for now) his dream of becoming Prime Minister. If he succeeded, of course, he would have been a rarity among those provincial premiers who have sought the federal grail. He stepped aside with style and intelligence, surrendering his ego and his pride to the interests of others.

One of the roles of political leadership is to provide models of how to conduct a public life, for those young women and men who might seek one. Bob did us all a great service in this respect, delivering the sort of role model that Barack Obama is providing. I’ll leave it to readers to decide whether or not Mr. Harper is meeting this noble standard.

Speaking of the Prime Minister, the next surprise of recent days was seeing him sit across the table from Peter Mansbridge, sheepishly and defensively denying he had done anything wrong. Sure looked to me like the school bully sitting in the principal’s office. That’s okay if you are trying to impress the bad boys and girls on the playground, but not so much good for the rest of us. And there is lots of homework that isn’t getting done.

Following that, of course, was the rapid transfer of power in the Liberal Party. In a wink of his eye and a twist of his head, up the chimney he rose, moving the party to the centre from the centre left.

I’ve not been keen, readers might know, on an Iggy reign. But I was surprised at how well he has done (at least as I write on Thursday morning) in recent press conferences and interviews, and especially on addressing the urban/suburban/rural and west/east splits as the real political divisions of the country.

Finally I’ve been surprised by the Province taking such glee in the work on the 101, seeking to brand it when “branding” was clearly yesterday’s public relations (and goofy) idea. Maybe once the most dangerous part is completed, we can give the highway a name, eh? But let’s not celebrate the work until it is done.

All the while… all through the House, not a creature was stirring; not even a mouse.