By Lloyd Mackey

WITH ALL the Ottawa election talk -- and all the apparent objection to the idea from the rest of the country -- it might be time to take another quick look at history.

The time frame under consideration is the '60s Lester Pearson Liberal-led "house of minorities". That was when the former Nobel Peace Prize-winning United Nations diplomat used his skills to keep both the left-leaning NDP and right-bending Social Credit on side for five years. (That was minus two days, in the interests of complete accuracy.)

There are some important differences between then and now, not the least of which is that Pearson was a Liberal and Stephen Harper is a Conservative. As well, Pearson had much of his attention pre-prime ministership on the landscape outside Canada, while Harper's experience was almost completely domestic.

Pearson had been Canada's foreign minister in the government of Louis St. Laurent and had, as well, been Canada's ambassador to the United States. He had been close to the centre of action during the founding of the United Nations.

It had been that bit of diplomatic experience that assisted Pearson in keeping the Socreds on side. Pearson had the attention of Robert Thompson, then Socred leader, because of the latter's pre-political experience in Africa, particularly in the rebuilding of Ethiopia's educational system after World War II.

When the Socreds and the NDP held the balance of power, Pearson periodically dispatched Thompson to African trouble spots, as a sort of special semi-detached person of natural experience.

There are some parallels between Pearson's action and what Harper did when he appointed John Manley, former Liberal foreign affairs minister, to chair an elite panel on Afghanistan.

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All of which leads to a great leap of logic. If Harper follows the Pearson example, he will find ways to stretch his present minority tenure to five years -- almost to the day. That would take us to the end of 2010 and slightly beyond.

Some, including a fair number of my press gallery colleagues, will disagree. But I would submit that Harper had done the right things to move toward that five year target. As I write, he has been in office 1,311 days. His fourth anniversary is only about four months away.

NDP leader Jack Layton has opined, recently, that Harper needs to reach out to the opposition. I would argue that he has consistently and regularly courted collaboration and the mildest form of power-sharing. And he has done it, not only in his own carefully-couched language, but through the conciliation-shaped efforts of government house leader Jay Hill.

Of course, in an adversarial political setting, no opposition party is going to trip over its feet to grab an outstretched hand. And any government leader would be wise to check out the figurative judo credentials possessed by his or her opposites.

But, in discounting Harper's foreign diplomatic experience, compared to Pearson, one needs to take note of the highly successful conservative movement merger that led to his coming to power.

So, I would go out on a limb and suggest that, even while the electoral sabres are rattling, an election is still months -- perhaps a year or more -- away.

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Lloyd Mackey is a member of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery in Ottawa and author of Stephen Harper: The Case for Collaborative Governance (ECW Press, 2006), More Faithful Than We Think: Stories and Insights on Canadian Leaders Doing Politics Christianly (BayRidge Books, 2005) and Like Father, Like Son: Ernest Manning and Preston Manning (ECW Press, 1997). Lloyd can be reached at lmackey@canadianchristianity.com.

September 10/2009