By B. S. Liddar

Parliament is being recalled for December 12 in order for the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement (FIA), Bill C-130, to be passed by the Senate and receive Royal Assent to enable it to come into effect on the proposed date of January 1, 1989,

Leaders of both opposition parties have conceded that the Progressive Conservative Party of Brian Mulroney has won a mandate from the Canadians to sign the agreement. Some vehemently anti-Free Trade Agreement groups, however are vowing are vowing to continue to fight the deal. These groups claim that since the Progressive Conservations received only 43.1% of the popular vote it does not constitute an endorsement of the FIA. The groups are not expected to be a strong viable opposition to the FTA especially when they do not have the explicit support of the two federal political parties in opposition. After all, it was an election whereby the winner of a majority of seats is claimed the winner and was not a referendum on a single issue of Free Trade Agreement. Liberal Party Leader John Tumer had asked the Senate to uphold the passage of the enabling legislation Bill C-130, until after Canadians had an opportunity to go to the polls. That having happened and the Progressive Conservatives having won 170 out of the 295 seats the Liberal dominated and appointed upper chamber will be hard pressed not to respond to the wishes of the elected House of Commons.

While the Progressive Conservative Party lost almost 7% of the vote it translated into a 41 seat loss. While the liberals almost doubled their seats from 40 to 82, the corresponding increase in popular vote was almost 8%. And the New Democratic won 43 seats compared to 30 in 1984 and the margin of popular support increased by 1.5% in 1988 federal general election 4% of the vote went to other parties.

The Progressive Conservative Party failed to capture a single scat of the 4 contested in the tiny province of Prince Edward Island (population 126,000). The New Democratic Party did not elect any MP in the four Atlantic Provinces and Quebec. The Liberals failed to win any seats in Saskatchewan and Manitoba and won a single seat in British Columbia that of John Turner. The exclusion of the NDP in the east makes it virtually a western based party. The Liberals on the other hand remained shutting out in most of the West and Quebec.

Six cabinet ministers, two of them first term MPs (Kelleher and MelInnea) lost the election. The six (with portfolios in brackets) are as follows; Ray Hnatyshyn (Justice and Attomey General), James Kolleher (Solicitor General), Flora MacDonald (Communications) Stewart McInnes (Public Works), Tom McMillan (Environment) and Gerry St. Germain (Minister of State for Transport). The Prime Minister is not expected to make any changes to the cabinet until after the Free Trade Agreement has been passed and after the commons returns from Christmas recess in early 1989.

One race that attracted a lot of attention was that of Secretary of State for External Affairs and former Prime Minister Joe Clark in the Alberta constituency of Yellow-head. Mr. Clark received 17,847 votes over his closest rival Preston Manning of the reform party who got 11,152. This is a relatively narrow victory considering that the margin of victory in 1984 was 30,556.

The fate of the two opposition leaders is also under focus, Liberal Party leader will come under further pressure to quit in view of the upcoming Liberal convention in February next year. Some observers think Turner will stay for a year or so and then exit. Although he is being credited for having helped the party win double the number of seats it did in 1984, there are forces actively starting to organize the departure of John Turner. The victory of Paul Martin Jr has considerably improved his chances of being a forceful contender for the leadership of the Liberal party. Son of former Liberal cabinet minister and Canada’s Ambassador to London, Paul Martin the Junior Martin who won the seat in Montreal’s La SalleEmard constituency is tipped to assume the leadership of the Liberal party. John Tuer may further delay his departure in order to diminish the chances of a comeback of his arch rival Jean Chretian. The longer Chretian stays out and the longer Martin Jr spends in the commons the better the chances of the latter in a leadership race.

The incumbents who were defeated have ten days in which to clear out of their offices in Parliament Buildings.

Article extracted from this publication >> December 2, 1988