The Prime Minister stood up again and faced the window, his back to Brian Richardson. There were fewer people down below, he noticed. Most, he supposed, had gone inside the Centre Block where the House of Commons would be convening in a few minutes' time.
'Will the rules allow a debate in the House?' Richardson questioned.
'Not in the ordinary way.' Howden answered without turning. 'But there's a supply motion coming up this afternoon, and the Opposition can pick any subject they choose. I hear a rumour that Bonar Deitz may make it immigration.'
Richardson sighed. He could already imagine the radio and television coverage tonight, the news stories tomorrow morning.
There was a light tap at the door. It opened to admit Milly. Howden turned, facing her.
'It's almost half past,' Milly announced. 'If you're going in for prayers…' She smiled at Richardson and nodded. On the way in the party director had handed her a folded note which read characteristically: 'Expect me at seven tonight. Important.'
'Yes,' the Prime Minister said. 'I'm going.'
Above them the Westminster quarters of the Peace Tower carillon began to chime.
Chapter 2
The sonorous, distinguished voice of the Speaker of the House was moving towards the end of prayers as James Howden entered the Government lobby. As always, the Prime Minister thought, Mr Speaker was putting on an impressive show. Through the nearest doorway to the floor of the House he could hear the familiar daily words… beseech Thee… particularly for the Governor General, the Senate and the House of Commons… that thou wouldst be pleased to direct and prosper all their consultations… that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety may be established among us for all generations…
Such splendid sentiments, Howden thought – alternated daily in French and English for a presumably bilingual God. It was a pity that in a few minutes from now the words would be forgotten among the minutiae of petty political sparring.
From inside came a chorus of sonorous amens, led strongly by the Clerk of the House, as was his special privilege.
Now other ministers and members were moving in, the House filling as it usually did for question time at the opening of a daily session. Around the Prime Minister in the lobby, supporters of his own majority party filed to their seats. Howden stayed, chatting briefly with members of the Cabinet, nodding to others who acknowledged his presence respectfully as they passed.
He allowed time for the galleries to fill before making his own entrance.
As always, there was a stir and turning of heads as he appeared. As if unaware of the attention, he made his way leisurely to the front row double desk on the Government side of the House which he shared with Stuart Cawston, already seated. Bowing to the Speaker, presiding from his canopied, thronelike chair at the north end of the high oblong chamber, James Howden took his own seat. A moment later he nodded urbanely to Bonar Deitz in the Opposition Leader's seat directly across the centre aisle.
The routine barrage of questions to government ministers had already begun.
A Newfoundland member was upset because of great numbers of dead codfish floating off the Atlantic coast, and what did the Government propose to do? The Minister of Fisheries began an involved and laboured answer.
Beside the Prime Minister, Smiling Stu Cawston murmured, 'I hear Deitz has chosen immigration for sure. I hope Harvey can carry the ball.'
James Howden nodded, then glanced behind him at the second row of government desks where Harvey Warrender sat, apparently imperturbable, except that now and then the muscles of his face were twitching.
As questioning continued, it was evident that the subject of immigration and Henri Duval – normally the kind of issue with which the Opposition would delight to bombard the Government at question time – was being omitted. It was added confirmation that Bonar Deitz and his supporters planned a full-dress debate when the supply motion was moved in a few minutes.
The Press gallery was crowded, Howden noted gloomily. All the front row seats were occupied and other reporters had crowded in behind.
The questions had ended and Smiling Stu arose from beside the Prime Minister. He moved formally that the House go into Committee of Supply.
Gathering his silk QC's gown around his corpulent figure, the Speaker nodded. At once, the Leader of the Opposition was on his feet.
'Mr Speaker,' the Hon Bonar Deitz enunciated crisply, then paused, his scholarly, gaunt face turned questioningly towards the presiding officer. Again a nod from the Speaker, like a black watching beetle, in his chair under the carved oak canopy.
For a moment Deitz paused, looking up – an unconscious habit he sometimes had – towards the soaring ceiling of the chamber fifty feet above. It was almost, James Howden thought on the other side of the House, as if his principal opponent sought to draw, from the painted Irish linen surface and elaborate gold-leaf cornices, the words he needed for a moment's greatness.
'The sorry record of this Government,' Bonar Deitz began, 'is.nowhere more depressingly exemplified than in its policies affecting immigration, and the day-to-day administration of immigration affairs. I suggest, Mr Speaker, that the Government and its Department of Citizenship and Immigration have their collective feet firmly rooted in the nineteenth century, a period from which they will not be stirred by considerations of a changed world or by simple, everyday humanity.'
It was an adequate opening, Howden thought, though whatever else Bonar Deitz had gathered from his survey of the ceiling, it had not been greatness. Most of the words, in one form or another, had been used before by successive oppositions in the House of Commons.
The thought prompted him to scribble a note to Harvey Warrender. 'Quote instances where Opposition, when in power, followed exact same procedure as us now. If you've not details, instruct your Dept rush them here.' He folded the note, beckoned a page boy and indicated the Minister of Immigration.
A moment later Harvey Warrender turned his head towards the Prime Minister, nodded, and touched a file folder among several on the desk before him. Well, Howden thought, that was as it should be. A good executive assistant would brief his minister carefully on something like that.
Bonar Deitz was continuing,'… in this motion of "no confidence"… a current example of a tragic case where humanitarian considerations, as well as human rights have been wantonly ignored'.
As Deitz paused there was a thumping of desk tops on the Opposition side. On the Government side a back-bencher called out, 'I wish we could ignore you.'
For a second the Opposition Leader hesitated.
The rough and tumble of the House of Commons had never appealed greatly to Bonar Deitz. Right from his own first election as a Member of Parliament years before, the House had always seemed to him remarkably like a sports arena where competing teams attempted to score points off each other at every opportunity. The rules of conduct, it seemed, were childishly simple: if some measure was favoured by your own party, it was naturally good; if favoured by another party, and not your own, it was just as automatically bad. There was seldom any in between. Similarly, to doubt your own party's stand on any issue and wonder if, for once, your opponents might be right and wiser, was considered disaffecting and disloyal.