It’s time for the federal Liberals to get off the pot. They need to eschew the rhetoric and posturing, get some gumption and enable the electorate to voice its opinion on where we are as a nation and where we need to be.

More and more, Stephen Harper’s Conservative government is proving itself to be rudderless, less and less transparent and increasingly self-serving. The Maxime Bernier affair is only the latest in a series of incidents that has called the government’s mandate and management into question, and the matter has spilled over finally beyond our borders and entered the world’s consciousness.

What better object lesson for the prime minister than to attend an overseas conference and have the embarrassment of the Bernier matter thrust before him courtesy of the international press? No safe haven elsewhere, we’re afraid. Maybe once upon the time the PM could jet off to one thing or another and not have to face the music, but circumstances at home have degraded to the point that no where’s quiet anymore when it comes to his government’s behaviour.

We are little more than a laughing stock on the world stage at the moment and it’s time to pull the plug. However, despite some tough talk by the Liberals and leader Stephane Dion, it’s unlikely we’ll see a general election in the near future.

Indeed, the Liberals had several opportunities to hold the government to account as recently as last Monday, but few Liberal MPs were in the House when a series of votes on the Conservatives’ controversial immigration reform package came up.

Published reports say they were taunted and laughed at by their opponents when only a handful of their members showed up for a set of 114-83 votes that brought the immigration legislation closer to becoming law.

Sure, the Liberals have been all over the Bernier debacle, decrying the government’s level of accountability and credibility and suggesting that it’s time for change in Ottawa, but where’s the beef?

Dion himself suggested that Canadians across the country have been asking him more and more, “When? When?” about a possible election. He even went so far as to say, “we need to replace this bad government.” We repeat: When?

Sorry, but we’re not buying. Certainly it’s high time to hold the Tories to full account, not only for the Bernier affair and other political gaffes, but a persistent and troubling attitude that insists the party will do what it wishes when it wishes, public opinion be damned.

It seems, however, the Liberals lack the political will. It’s possible they don’t have the funds necessary to contest an election right now, or maybe it’s because people don’t see Dion as a strong leader. We wonder why.

Whatever, they’ve had their chances and if they don’t ask their members to come in and stand in the House when opportunities exist to exercise the will of the people, any verbiage is hollow.

We need leadership at the national level and there’s precious little from which to choose. If the Liberals want to walk the talk, we daresay it’s gut check time. Either put up or put a lid on it because it does a country anxious for political accountability a disservice to do otherwise.