The final score of the Super Bowl reminded me of the sports adage that every good offence should count on the defence to score some points, or at least set the offence up to score.
Super Bowl LVII was a battle of two great teams, but of the two teams only one had the benefit of the better defence helping the offence. In 60 minutes of football there was one turnover in the game, the Kansas City Chiefs “D” forced a fumble and took it back for a touchdown and tied the game after the teams returned from the Rihanna half time show.
Just as in sports, politics can also be considered has having an offence and defence.
Government naturally gets to be on the offence all the time. The opposition parties are the defence, always attacking the government. The Conservative Party as His Majesties Loyal Opposition gets the title as the lead of the defence. It could be a good argument that the Liberals would be on the defence, but as the government they should always be looking to score, score points with the voters by rolling out their platform, a budget and by responding to the events of the day.
On the defence, the Conservatives are looking for the fumble and the interception and to make a score of their own. When they can do that, the government turns to defence and the opposition now has the ball on the move.
This has happened on a few occasions, most recently is bill C-21. The bill was well on its way to passing through committee and to third reading in the House.
The government was on its way to scoring, but something happened on the way to the goal line. The government decided to score two extra points when one would have done. While the bill was being discussed in committee in November the government introduced a motion that expanded the definition of restricted firearms and now would include firearms considered standard by hunters, farmers, and indigenous peoples. The government was now piling on and the opposition had a chance to force a turnover.
The Conservatives had been battling the government on C-21 since its introduction and when the amendment was brought in the Conservatives took its defence to the next level. Led by MP Raquel Dancho, the opposition saw the government get out manoeuvred resulting in the government getting flipped to defence. that flipped the government to the defence was addition of the Bloc and NDP that took challenge to the amendments to the next level. In a move that can only be seen as a “Hail Mary” pass from the government, it was an attempt to score big. Unfortunately for them, they threw an interception. The Conservatives and opposition pounced and forced the government to retract.
The Conservatives, Bloc and NDP forced the turnover and the defence scored – the Liberals pulled to contentious amendments. This is no way close to being over, the government will be able to table new changes try to push the any new changes across the goal line. For the sake of politics the game will not be over until the next election, when a new offence is elected. The Liberals will assume the offence until then and the opposition parties will once again have to work and score points on defence!!
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