President and CEO of the Public Policy Forum
Public life in Canada has almost always revolved around the personalities of a prime minister and an alternative prime minister, known as the leader of the Official Opposition. These are the yin and yang of Canadian politics, the point-counterpoint of public policy and the dominant influence on ballot-box decisions during elections.
Unlike the United States, where leaders of the two main parties confront each other only during election campaigns, in Canada the political duel fought between the prime minister and leader of the Opposition is a recurring and unavoidable feature of national politics. After U.S. elections, the president engages and negotiates with a variety of congressional leaders; he has no single partisan rival and he has no way of predicting the opponent he will face during the next campaign.
In Canada, by stark contrast, the prime minister is required to routinely square off against an acknowledged aspirant for his job. Through the glaring lens of the news media, in the high court of public opinion and two sword lengths away in the House of Commons, the prime minister and Opposition leader dance a prolonged political duet.
Canada's version of the Westminster model of government has clearly been shaped by the force and dynamic of strong political personalities. And even though multiparty politics have been a reality in our Parliament for almost 90 years, leaders of third and fourth parties have only rarely altered the focused competition between the two principal leaders who alone possess the realistic prospect of governing the country.
Throughout our country's history these complex political pairings - some of which endured over extended periods - have often helped define their generations and the public issues of their times. As a result, the opponents became intimately acquainted with one another, developing a mutual political dependency.
Right from the start of Canadian Confederation, Sir John A. Macdonald and Liberal leader Alexander Mackenzie took turns as prime minister and opposition leader, facing each other in both roles in what must have seemed interminable debates over the National Policy and political scandals during the federation's early years.
In the 1920s, Liberal leader William Lyon Mackenzie King and Conservative Arthur Meighen bitterly fought one another through a series of minority Parliaments where they took respective turns on both sides of the House of Commons. The brilliant Meighen was largely unfulfilled in his political ambitions, while the wily and eccentric King, would go on to become Canada's longest serving prime minister.
Perhaps the classic Canadian political rivalry occurred in the late 1950s and early 1960s, fully absorbing the fiery personality of prairie populist John Diefenbaker and the urbane diplomat Lester Pearson. Again, during a period of successive minority Parliaments, both men took their turns as prime minister and opposition leader, while castigating each other over emotional and symbolic issues such as the flag debate.
Pierre Trudeau, one of Canada's most popular prime ministers, was opposed initially by former Nova Scotia premier Robert Stanfield. However, his relationship with Joe Clark might be more memorable. Mr. Clark defeated the charismatic Mr. Trudeau in the federal election of 1979. Nine months later, his minority government fell, setting the scene for the unexpected return of the pirouetting Trudeau. In spite of this setback, Mr. Clark would long remain a fixture in Canadian politics.
One of the country's most dramatic rivalries was between John Turner and Brian Mulroney in the 1980s. Mr. Turner had succeeded Mr. Trudeau as Liberal leader and prime minister, but lost two consecutive elections in 1984 and 1988 to Mr. Mulroney. The force of their personalities played decisive roles in national debates over free trade, constitutional change and the implementation of the GST.
During the 1990s and into the early years of the new century, then-prime-minister Jean Chrétien faced an array of Opposition leaders, from the Bloc Québécois to the Reform Party to the Alliance. None of them seriously threatened his hold on power in a country that was becoming increasingly fragmented on a regional basis. In fact, if Mr. Chrétien had a counterpoint, it was probably within his own party, in the person of his finance minister, Paul Martin. Indeed, based upon the recently published memoirs of both men, theirs was probably the chief political rivalry of the period.
This brings us to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the new Leader of the Opposition, Michael Ignatieff. Together they represent an impressive pair of political leaders, certainly as intelligent and serious-minded as any of their predecessors. While their political duet is still in its early stages, it is already clear they have a mutual respect for each other, matched only by their mutual antipathy. (This was not the case when former Liberal leader Stéphane Dion provided the competition.)
Only time will tell if Mr. Harper and Mr. Ignatieff will form one of the memorable combinations in the Canadian pantheon. What we can say for now is that, assuming they both lead their parties in the next election, Canadians will have a choice between two credible and competing visions for their country.