Prime Minister Harper Stalls Summer Election
Ignatieff Gives Up Forcing Summer Vote Over Promise of EI Panel
Jun 29, 2009
Things calmed down significantly on Parliament Hill since the election of Michael Ignatieff as Leader of the federal Liberal Party. The pre-Christmas threat of a three-party coalition to tumble the minority government of Stephen Harper is long over. Instead when that crucial vote took place earlier this year, the Liberals chose to reject the idea of the coalition and voted in favour of the federal budget, albeit with conditions.
These conditions, as set out by the Liberals included reforms to the Employment Insurance program, as well as a regular report card on how the federal government was managing the economy. The Liberals would reserve judgment upon receipt of these report cards as to how they would vote on any confidence motions attached to them. In other words, the Liberals were satisfied with the potential for forcing the governing Conservatives to make improvements to their fiscal plan or risk facing an election at some point in the near future.
Opinion Polls Embolden Ignatieff to Push for EI Changes
Opinion polls soared for the Opposition Liberals, giving Michael Ignatieff and his party the lead over the governing Conservatives for the first time in years. In late spring, the first report card on the economy was tabled. In response, Ignatieff and his party threatened to force an election over the issue of Employment Insurance reforms alone, given the Conservatives have not demonstrably moved far enough to make this program accessible to more laid-off workers. At the same time these issues were raised, the Conservatives placed attack ads on major television stations, this time attacking Ignatieff’s credibility as Liberal leader.
With respect to EI reforms, Ignatieff promoted an Employment Insurance system that would be available to any worker that worked 360 hours or more, regardless of where they lived in Canada. This idea was particularly popular among Ontario residents that have weathered the storm in the current recession with the loss of over 600,000 manufacturing jobs in the past couple years. Under the current EI system, Ontario is rated as a province with less difficulty for unemployed workers to find new jobs; therefore, the requirements for laid-off Ontarians were tougher to collect Employment Insurance than workers in other parts of the country. As many Ontarians know, the reality is quite different now as less than half of all laid-off workers are actually eligible for EI.
Threat of Summer Election Stalled, Conservatives Retain Power
In response to Ignatieff’s demands, the Conservatives backed off and then promised to set up a six-member panel to review changes and improvements to the Employment Insurance system, including how to bring in self-employed workers that currently do not pay into or benefit from the fund today. Apparently, this referral to a panel was enough to remove the threat of a summer election, but it was more likely that a slippage popular opinion for Liberals dampened Ignatieff's desire for forcing a summer election. According to an Angus-Reid poll published on June 24th, 2009, the Liberals fell behind the Conservatives at 31% of decided voters and Conservative support edged up to 32%.
While many stakeholders are pleased that the issue of self-employed workers are at least being considered for inclusion in the Employment Insurance scheme, others feel this is window dressing and that real changes to the Employment Insurance scheme are not likely to be made with this Parliament.
