Influence comes from co-operation and compromise

The way to political influence is by participating and co-operating. Confrontation makes from exciting media but usually achieves little.

Absent actual evil (co-operating with, say, Pol Pot would be unthinkable) the best approach is almost always to try to work together.

This is true in Parliament today but more it is true for Canada as a whole. Today's Post has a very perceptive piece, Taking Our Place, a small part of which follows (the link is below the quotation):

It is often said that the Harper government does not have a very strong Quebec team. No doubt, this is probably true, but can you blame the Prime Minister for this? Quebec cannot both go ahead and elect Bloquistes -- a perfectly legitimate choice, of course -- and, at the same time, want to be represented in the federal Cabinet. If Quebecers want to vote for a protest party because they feel that is where the "real power" lies, they are free to do so. But they should not then begin to whine about Quebec having so little influence in the federal political machinery!

In a particularly passionate speech he made to Quebec supporters in June, 2007, then Liberal leader Stephane Dion reminded them of the importance of Quebec participation in federal politics. (Partisanship led him to speak only about the Liberal party, but the reasoning applies across the board.)

"Everything great and influential that has ever happened in the history of Canada has been made possible because Quebecers invested their energy and talents in the Liberal Party of Canada. This was the case under Wilfrid Laurier, just as it was under Mackenzie King. Some great ministers came from Quebec at the time of Mackenzie King, people like Ernest Lapointe and Louis Saint-Laurent; and it was also an amazing period of construction for Canada. And of course Pierre Elliott Trudeau .... Look at each of these periods and you will always find Quebecers who have taken on enormous responsibilities, whether as ministers, members of Parliament, chairs of committees or senior officials. Canada would not be where it is without all of these Quebecers who believed in the Liberal Party of Canada."

http://www.nationalpost.com/m/story.html?id=1719804&s=Today's%20Newspaper
James Morton
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