Federal election talk has wound down recently. Thankfully.

After a raucous in August and September, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff seems to have at least curbed his rhetorical vendetta against the Conservatives over a notably slight disagreement in employment insurance (EI) reform. Though it has been humorous to witness the joining together of the NDP and the Harper Conservatives – if only because it seems odd that the NDP should long for less EI provisions than the Liberals – the fact of the matter is that a federal election would be devastating for Canada’s official opposition.

Bluntly, the Liberals are in no shape to wage a successful election battle. They are suffering through a long stretch of political irrelevancy. Though Ignatieff has had nearly a year to re-define his party, there has been an underwhelming attempt on his part to relay to Canadians a reasonable alternative to the federal government.

The Liberals are lost in the political wilderness and Ignatieff is a fool if he still believes that the time to characterize and project his party’s agenda is during an election. Stéphane Dion attempted that with brutal results.

With the despair that has been wrought amongst Canada’s federal opposition during the Conservative reign, a premature election may inadvertently relinquish the power they now hold in minority Parliament. With polls, untrustworthy as they are, now showing a rise in the support of the Tories to that pathetically undemocratic 40 per cent of voters needed to gain a majority in Canadian government, there is a very real chance that voters may just afford the Conservatives full control of the levers of Parliament.

But even as Ignatieff waffles in illusion, there is a bill currently making its way through Parliament which could at least allow his party to begin to formulate a political identity. The bill known as C-300, introduced by Liberal MP John McKay, is a somewhat trail-blazing piece of proposed legislation.

Essentially, Bill C-300 is a preliminary attempt at reducing the appalling record of Canadian mining, gas and oil companies that do business in the so-called “developing world.” Legions of major Canadian resource extraction corporations have a long and documented history of environmental devastation and human rights violations in countries throughout Africa, South America and Southeast Asia.

For example, the extent of environmental damage and labour exploitation caused by Barrick Gold – Canada’s largest publicly traded company – in its operations in Papua New Guinea was severe enough for Norway to blacklist the company from its global pension fund.

These Canadian companies’ actions are similar to those employed by many other large corporations who operate within countries where labour and environmental standards are weak and unenforced. Pitiful wages, dangerous working conditions and disregard for the environment which rival or surpass tar sands-levels are standard practice since domestic Canadian regulations are unenforceable beyond our borders.

Bill C-300 seeks to change this, as it would empower both the minister of international trade and the minister of foreign affairs to hold accountable Canadian resource extraction companies which operate oversees in these regulatory vacuums. So far, the levels of incursion into business practices entailed in the bill have been unsupported by Harper’s government.

Many assumed Ignatieff, with his extensive academic commitment to furthering human rights, would have attempted to raise the sceptre of previous Liberal governments in articulating a human rights-based discourse at home and abroad. It is therefore surprising that the Liberals have done little under his tutelage in this regard.

If Ignatieff is willing to bring down another parliamentary session over one piece of legislation – EI reform – he might as well allow for its continuance over another. At least the passage of Bill C-300, now through its second reading, would allow the Liberals to grab hold of an agenda to articulate something that is wholly separate from the current government.

Because in order for there to exist a reasonable check on Conservative dominance in Parliament, a Liberal identity must begin to emerge from the woods.

Andrew Tod is a politics student at the University of Winnipeg.

Published in Volume 64, Number 8 of The Uniter (October 22, 2009)