Canada has already had their Obama: Pierre Elliot Trudeau, a Liberal Prime Minister. Canada has never been the same since, so with all due respect, I think your friend is wrong, Wretchard.
Australia almost had it’s Pierre Trudeau, Gough Whitlam. But Whitlam fell from office after he couldn’t get government to keep working though the damage Whitlam caused, at least in the view of some, was deep and lasting enough.
After 23 years of opposition, the Labor party lacked experience in the mechanics of government. Nevertheless, Whitlam embarked on a massive legislative reform program. In the space of a little less than three years, the Whitlam Government established formal diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China; assumed responsibility for tertiary education from the states and abolished tertiary fees;[8] cut tariffs across the board by 25% and abolished the Tariff Board;[9] established the Schools Commission to distribute federal funds to assist non-government schools on a needs basis; introduced a supporting benefit for single-parent families; abolished the death penalty for federal crimes. It also reduced the voting age to 18 years; abolished the last vestiges of the White Australia Policy; introduced language programs for non-English speaking Australians; mandated equal opportunities for women in Federal Government employment; appointed women to judicial and administrative positions; abolished conscription; set up the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee; amalgamated the five separate defence departments; instituted direct federal grants to local governments, and established the Order of Australia (Australia’s own honours system), as well as improved access to justice for Indigenous Australians; introduced the policy of Self-determination for Indigenous Australians; advocated land rights for Indigenous Australians; increased funding for Indigenous Australian’s welfare; introduced the Multiculturalism policy for all new migrants; established Legal Aid, and increased funding for the arts.
The Senate resolutely opposed six key bills and twice rejected them (however they were eventually passed at a joint sitting of parliament). The bills were designed to:
* Institute a universal health insurance system to be known as Medibank (later under the Hawke Labor government, Medibank was split in to Medibank Private and the publicly accessible Medicare).
* Provide citizens of the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory with Senate representation for the first time.
* Regulate the size of House of Representatives electorates to ensure one vote one value (additional measures occurred later, as of the 1984 federal election which also introduced Group ticket voting in the Senate).
* Institute government overseeing of exploitation of minerals and oil.The repeated rejection of these bills provided a constitutional trigger for a double dissolution (a dissolution of both houses followed by an election for all members of both houses), but Whitlam did not decide to call such an election until April 1974. Instead, he expected to hold an election for half the Senate. To improve his chances of winning control of the Senate, Whitlam offered the former DLP Leader, Senator Vince Gair, the post of Ambassador to Ireland, thus creating an extra Senate vacancy in Queensland which Whitlam hoped Labor could win. This manoeuvre backfired, however, when the Queensland Premier, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, learnt of the scheme and advised the Governor of Queensland to issue the writs for the Queensland Senate election before Gair’s resignation could be obtained.
This “Gair affair” so outraged opponents of the Whitlam government that the Opposition Leader Billy Snedden threatened to block supply in the Senate, although he took no actual steps to do so. Whitlam, however, believing Snedden was unpopular with the electorate, immediately went to the Governor-General, Sir Paul Hasluck, and obtained a double dissolution of both Houses on 11 April, with the election set down for 18 May. Whitlam went to the polls asking for a mandate to “finish the job”, and the ALP campaigned on the slogan “Give Gough a Go”. At the election the Whitlam government was re-elected, though with a reduced majority. The DLP lost all its seats, but Labor failed to win a majority in the Senate. The balance of power in the Senate was now held by two independent Senators. In the short term, this led to the historic joint sitting of both houses, at which the six bills were passed. In the longer term, it contained the seeds of Whitlam’s downfall.
In its second term, the Whitlam Government continued with its legislative reform program, but became embroiled in a series of controversies, including attempts to borrow large amounts of money from Middle Eastern governments (the “Loans Affair”). Whitlam was forced to dismiss Treasurer Jim Cairns and another senior minister, Rex Connor, for misleading Parliament.
Emboldened by these events, a weak economy, and a massive swing to them in a mid-1975 by-election for the Tasmanian seat of Bass, the Liberal-Country Opposition, led by Malcolm Fraser, argued that the Government’s behaviour in breaching constitutional conventions required that it in turn attempt to breach one of the most fundamental, that the Senate would block Supply (that is, cut off supply of Treasury funds).
The crisis of 1975 was precipitated by the Senate’s refusal to pass the Whitlam government’s money (Supply) bill. In October 1975, the Opposition moved to delay consideration of the budget in the Senate. This delay would have resulted in essential public services ceasing to function due to lack of money; that is to say Whitlam attempted to govern without supply and no government had ever attempted such a course of action.[10] Malcolm Fraser warned that the bill would not be passed unless Whitlam called an early election. Whitlam determined to face the Opposition down, and proposed to borrow money from the banks to keep the government running. He was confident that some of the more moderate Liberal Senators would back down when the situation worsened as appropriations ran out during November and December.
The Governor-General Sir John Kerr was concerned about the legality of Whitlam’s proposals for borrowing money, and to govern without Supply, although the Solicitor-General and Attorney-General had scrutinised them for legality.[11]
On 11 November 1975, Kerr in accordance with Section 64 exercised his power and revoked Whitlam’s commission and installed Fraser as caretaker Prime Minister, with instructions to make no policy changes, no appointments, no dismissals and call an immediate federal election. At 2.45 pm Fraser announced he was caretaker Prime Minister and was advising a double dissolution election.
On hearing the proclamation dissolving Parliament, which ended with the traditional ‘God Save the Queen’, Whitlam delivered an impromptu address to the crowd that had gathered in front of the steps of Parliament House. During the speech he labelled Fraser as “Kerr’s cur” and told the crowd: “Ladies and gentlemen, well may we say ‘God Save the Queen’, because nothing will save the Governor-General.”
In the House of Representatives Whitlam moved a motion ‘that this House expresses its want of confidence in the Prime Minister and requests Mr Speaker forthwith to advise His Excellency the Governor-General to call on me to form a government’. This vote of confidence in Whitlam was passed on party lines. News of this vote was delivered personally to Kerr by the Speaker of the House Gordon Scholes, but Kerr refused to see the Speaker until after his Official Secretary had read the notice of double dissolution at Parliament House at 4.45 pm.
In the leadup to the resulting election, Whitlam called upon his supporters to “maintain your rage”. Whitlam ran a bitter and passionate campaign but despite this, the ALP suffered a 7.4% swing against them and Whitlam was to remain as Opposition Leader until his defeat in the 1977 election.
Canada could afford to take a vacation from history because it could rely on the US to hold the ring. But the US can’t do this because it is not only the financial lender of last resort, but the security provider of final recourse. No one will take up the slack; it is the system administrator of the world. An Obama misgovernance won’t mean the US can engage in a long experiment to “find itself”. It will lead directly to spiraling instability, economic crisis and war. The crunch would come fairly quickly but takes years to resolve. And I am not sure it will be resolved in so civil a way as Australia did it. The stakes will be much higher and the dangers much, much greater. But maybe there’s no other way but to let the dynamic play out and hope to come out the other end.
