Revolutionary Moderation

What the hell is wrong with me?



I drove into work today, listening to the radio news, "tsk"ing at Jack Layton, and nodding my head to Stephen Harper.



First, to Jack Layton. Jack wants the entire NDP caucus to vote in favour of allowing same-sex marriage. That's well and good. Jack will enforce party unity on the vote. Not so good.



I haven't made a secret of my strong support for gay marriage. And the Ontario court of Appeals says it's a matter of equality and rights. However, I'm a firm believer in a resilient, strong democracy. Party discipline works against that principle, and I think should be used sparingly. In this case, with the other parties allowing freedom for their MPs, it makes the NDP look particularly bad to be cracking the whip. It's also worth noting that I don't think Parliament gets to say "no" permanently to gay marriage... all they'll get to do is spend a bunch of money losing at the Supreme Court, so I don't think Bev can do any permanent damage.



Now to Stephen Harper. He's accusing the government of "rigging" the same-sex court decision so that the government could make the change somewhat free of political heat. And I think his analysis is half-right. And half horribly, horribly wrong.



The idea that the Prime Minister bothered to stack the bench of the Ontario Court of Appeals is a little absurd. Stack it with Liberals, sure, but as the split in his caucus proves, not all capital-L Liberals are small-l liberals. And Canadian judicial appointees have a very good record of avoiding political influence once they reach the bench.



But the half he got right is the part about the Prime Minister being happy with the decision, and happy to take this opportunity to attempt a legislative change that he couldn't have easily initiated without the court decision. And it shows a certain lack of political nerve on the part of the Prime Minister. Considering he's headed out the door, that's actually quite a bit of lack.



It also shows a lack of judicial creativity on the court's behalf. Remember the good old days of the constitutional repatriation reference? Sure, Mr. Trudeau, you could patriate without the Premiers - but you probably shouldn't. That's what judicial creativity looks like, and we could use more of it in the country right now.



I guess this is the "moderate" part of my being a revolutionary moderate. I'll be back on the crazy leftie track soon.