Here, reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions (§29) of the Copyright Act from today’s Globe and Mail, is a report that suggests Harper’s plans for the forthcoming year – without an election:
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I have highlighted a bit about the ‘order of business on 26/27 Jan 09.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090108.wsenate08/BNStory/politics/home
Harper pushes to gain control of Senate
PM changes course, backs down on confidence votes
GLORIA GALLOWAY AND JANE TABER
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
January 8, 2009 at 4:00 AM EST
OTTAWA — Facing an emboldened opposition and the possibility of defeat, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is making a significant switch in tactics, dropping his reliance on confidence votes and moving even further toward stacking the Senate with Tories.
A top aide said yesterday that Mr. Harper will no longer threaten elections to force opposition compliance on secondary policy matters.
He is also planning to fill Senate seats as they become vacant and will not stop until next January when his Tories will finally have the majority in the upper chamber, according to two senior government officials.
Reversing his promise not to name senators until the chamber is reformed, Mr. Harper made 18 appointments last month. Now senior government officials say he is expected to appoint two more in March, when the next vacancies occur. He will make 10 more by the end of the year, keeping with his new strategy to control the Red Chamber to make reforms.
"Now that the decision has been made to fill the seats, delaying on appointments does not make sense, and as such, expect that the government will fill seats as they become open," said a senior Harper official.
Like the Senate plan, the reduced emphasis on confidence votes is a dramatic change for the government, which will face a stronger opposition and a declining economy when Parliament returns later this month.
"We are in a different situation," said the aide, referring to the past session of Parliament, in which the government held 43 confidence votes that the Opposition Liberals allowed to pass.
"If you have interpreted a shift in position, that's correct. But it's appropriate that we shift in economic circumstances ..." said the aide, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity.
Mr. Harper's priorities are the drooping economy and the budget plan to revitalize it, he said.
"It would not be possible, not be correct not to proceed on other issues, and we intend to proceed on a number of issues. But those issues will be secondary to the economy," he said.
During the fall campaign, and even after the Conservatives were held to a second straight minority, spokesmen for the Prime Minister said matters such as the Tory crime agenda would be subject to confidence votes.
Former Liberal leader Stéphane Dion had sanctioned repeated abstentions rather than campaign without money or an organization. But just before Christmas, newly appointed Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said it would be "unacceptable" to make all votes a matter of confidence. "We've got our act together, got a leader chosen, and [Mr. Harper] can't keep making these misjudgments of the mood of the House and hope to survive," Mr. Ignatieff said.
Parliament returns with a Throne Speech and the swearing-in of new senators on Jan. 26 and the budget the next day.
The Throne Speech, said the aide, will be perfunctory. "The event that we're all waiting for is the budget. This will be one of the most important budgets in Canadian history, certainly in recent Canadian history."
Both the speech and the budget are automatically confidence matters. The aide said no decision has been made as to which will be voted on first.
The Liberals and the New Democrats say they are willing to form a coalition government with the support of the Bloc Québécois should the Conservatives lose a vote.
But polls suggest the idea is not popular. And it would be difficult for the opposition parties to justify taking down the Conservatives if the economic package contains the large stimulus they have demanded.
The Governor-General allowed Mr. Harper to prorogue, or suspend, Parliament last month as he faced a no-confidence vote that would have defeated his short-lived government.
Government officials said there is a view that the Conservatives should make the Senate appointments in case the government is defeated when Parliament returns, giving the opposition parties the opportunity to fill the vacancies.
Breaking his vow to appoint senators only in rare circumstances, Mr. Harper appointed 18 new Senators - mainly strong Conservative partisans - late last month.
Conservatives say this does not mean they are abandoning Senate reforms that the Liberal majority in the chamber has blocked.
"We've become more realistic in terms of what is necessary to actually achieve it and to achieve it we need to have the votes in the Senate because the current occupants of the office are just not interested," said an official.
There are 105 seats in the Senate: 58 Liberals, 35 Conservatives, three Progressive Conservatives, four independents and one independent New Democrat.
Conservative Senator Marjory LeBreton said that if the government fills the seats upon vacancy, by the end of 2009 there will be 49 Conservatives and 50 Liberals.
But by the next month - in January, 2010 - the numbers will reverse and the Tories will have 50 Senators and the Liberals will occupy 49 seats with the retirement of Toronto Liberal Senator Jerry Grafstein.
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This, the Senate filling plan, does not depend upon not having an election – it does depend upon Harper winning whatever election might occur.
