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Lorne Gunter: Carney majority spells return to same old Liberal mismanagement

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The three byelection wins by the Liberals on Monday night give the Carney government an unassailable majority. With 174 seats, they can pass any bill they like without having rely on the Speaker of the House of Commons to cast a deciding vote to break a tie.

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Let’s put aside for a moment the fact that the Liberal majority was undemocratically obtained.

Sure, Monday’s byelection wins are democratic. But the five floor crossings since December are not. Not one of the five turncoats resigned his or her seat to run in a byelection before crossing.

Since we know that Canadians tend to vote for the party first, the leader second and the local candidate last, it’s wrong for someone elected as a Conservative or New Democrat to switch allegiances without first clearing it with his or her constituents.

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Without the five floor crossers, the Liberals would still be short of a majority. That’s what I mean by their majority being obtained undemocratically.

Canadians haven’t voted for a Liberal majority since the 2015 election, and they still haven’t.

If you want to appreciate just how unprincipled the Liberals have been in assembling their majority, consider the case of former Conservative MP Marilyn Gladu of Sarnia-Lambton-Bkejwanong. Elected in 2015 and re-elected three more times as a Conservative, Gladu has taken some very vocal, public stances against Liberal policy. Gladu voted against the ban on conversion therapy for gay teens, downplayed the seriousness of COVID-19, vocally backed the 2022 Freedom Convoy and has said she’d allow MPs to move legislation to restrict abortion.

All four of those positions are the exact opposite of official Liberal policy.

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There’s no need to be ideologically consistent when your government’s majority is on the line.

Now that the Libs have connived their majority, though, what does that mean for Canada?

Does it mean more major projects approved and completed? Does it mean an end to the housing crisis? Lower prices? Less crime?

Does it mean less federal spending, smaller deficits, a reduced civil service, lower taxes?

No, it doesn’t mean any of those things because the lack of a majority was never the obstacle standing in the way of the Liberals solving these problems. Their biggest impediment has always been their own policies. And now that they have their majority, they are less likely than ever to change them.

Just about six weeks ago, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith mused that were the Liberals able to secure a majority, it might improve the chances of the federal government approving a pipeline from Alberta to B.C.’s northern coast.

Now that the Liberals have their majority, they will do everything to defend and expand that advantage.

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There have been polls in recent months showing the Liberals more popular in Alberta than at any time since the Trudeaumania election of 1968.

But even if there were a chance of the Liberals picking up half a dozen seats to go with the two they already have in Alberta, those added seats wouldn’t come to making up for the 15 to 20 seats the Liberals could lose in Quebec and on B.C.’s Lower Mainland by pushing through another pipeline.

As a principal, the Liberals don’t like cutting taxes. They view all the money as theirs and Canadians should be grateful for what they let us keep.

But even if they favoured lowering taxes, they’re not cutting spending or reducing government borrowing or laying off civil servants, which means they have no room to cut taxes.

Home construction is falling because the cost of municipal development permits is too high, development approval takes too long and the government is distorting the marketplace by funding thousands of “non-market” houses (as if there could be such a thing).

No, a Liberal majority won’t change anything because it won’t change the Liberals.

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