OTTAWA - MPs return to work Tuesday preaching peace and goodwill as an antidote to both economic uncertainty and public cynicism.
It's been barely a month since partisans were locked in a deeply rancorous federal election campaign that saw the lowest voter turnout in Canadian history.
Way back in October, Stephen Harper accused the opposition of cheering for a recession while Liberal Leader Stephane Dion repeatedly called the Conservative prime minister a liar.
On Tuesday, the peace train will roll on to Parliament Hill -- although it remains to be seen how long the journey will last.
"On our teams' part, we certainly want to see a new tone. We intend to do what we can," said Jay Hill, the Conservative House leader.
Since winning a renewed, strengthened minority on Oct. 14, Harper has met with Dion, NDP Leader Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe of the Bloc Quebecois.
Harper named the personable Hill as his new manager in the Commons, and Hill in turn has conferred with the other party House leaders. The party whips have also had consultations.
"There seems to be a consensus that we want to be very serious in how we approach everything that flows from the economic instability facing our nation and indeed facing the planet right now," said Hill, the veteran MP for Prince George-Peace River.
It's a somewhat familiar refrain as Canada enters its third successive minority administration.
Past remonstrations about raising the tone have quickly been swamped by ever more incendiary parliamentary rhetoric. But this time there's a powerful incentive of Conservative self-preservation as Canada faces a looming budgetary shortfall.
A senior official in the Prime Ministers' Office told a media briefing Monday that an economic stimulus package -- jointly agreed to on the weekend by G-20 leaders -- "may require us to fall into a deficit position."
Conservatives contemplating the first federal budget deficit next year since 1997 are looking for political cover, so it makes strategic sense to hug the opposition on all matters economic.
A tangible signal that MPs may be serious about decorum comes from the heated race to replace longtime Speaker Peter Milliken, the Liberal MP known as profoundly knowledgeable about parliamentary rules but a rather soft referee for enforcing them. The secret ballot by MPs takes place Tuesday with at least 16 MPs in the running, including Milliken.
Still, it will require unusual forbearance from all four major parties to achieve sustained co-operation.
Layton sounded more cautious than conciliatory on Monday.
"Is the prime minister going to accept our suggestions? I hope so," said the NDP leader, noting 62 per cent of Canadians voted against the Conservatives last month.
"Is he going to go back to his old approach of `My way or the highway -- I dare you to vote against me, you'll simply have to accept what I say or suffer the consequences?'
"That's what we've heard for the last couple of years. I don't think Canadians liked it very much. I don't think it's what we need in a time of economic crisis."
With the Liberals led by a lame-duck Dion and mired in their third leadership race in five years, the Conservatives know they are working from a position of tactical if not economic strength.
Sources say the government has mapped out a full legislative agenda and contemplated releasing it Wednesday in the speech from the throne -- once again daring the emasculated Liberals to bring it down on a confidence vote.
But that familiar aggressive path has been overtaken by economic events.
The PMO official told reporters Monday that the throne speech will be "less a prescriptive laundry list of policies and actions" than a tone-setting document that will clearly establish the economy as the singular, immediate focus of the government.
Other Conservative campaign promises have not been ditched, said the official, but are "secondary." That includes tough-on-crime justice legislation that was a rallying point for Tory partisans both on the election trail and at the party's national policy convention in Winnipeg on the weekend.
Partisan rancour, it appears, has fallen out of favour for a party that's practised wedge politics with gusto.
Hill noted that October's record-low voter turnout of 59.1 per cent may have reflected Canadians "tuning out" the parliamentary name-calling.
"We strayed from (civility) towards the end of the last Parliament," said the Conservative, "to the detriment of all political parties."
