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Well, it appears that the results of our election are far from written in stone. The parliament that Canadians elected on October 14th has decided to form a new government. Since more people voted for the two parties of the coalition, which the Bloc has agreed to support, than for the current government, Canadians stand a chance of even more representation through this eventuality. Is this the politics of the new millennium for us?
Liberals, NDP, Bloc sign deal on proposed coalition
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I can only go by reports over here in the UK, but I got to say I was gobsmacked by what's happening in Canada politically. My own parents and my in-laws live there (Toronto and Vancouver) and they've never had a good thing to say about Harper. Then last night I hear that Harper got the Governor General (?) to dissolve parliament until early 2009 as a way of pre-empting the vote of no confidence he was about to suffer.
I'm not kidding, my first thought was: has anyone actually seen Harper and Mugabe in the same room at the same time, 'cos this modus operandi sure looks familiar to me.
Well, I'm definitely of two minds here - I think that the budget update put forward by the Conservatives was clearly partisan politics, meant at crippling the opposition's ability to compete, and to limit the influence of the Public Service. It was petty and mean spirited in a time when partisan politics has no place in parliament when dealing with the global economic crisis.
On the other hand, the idea of a coalition, tenuous at best, leading the government for an extended period of time seems to me unstable and untenable. Yes, the argument is that they do in fact represent a lot more of the population (in terms of total votes and seats), and that even if supported by the Bloc (who were duly elected by CANADIANS), they still make uneasy bedfellows.
I think the GG did the only thing that she could have done under the situation, so that it didn't look like an unelected official was having undue influence in the governing of the nation. By allowing a cooling off period, saner heads may prevail, and if, after all of that the gov't does fall, the GG can then say, at least, that she allowed the gov't to try and work it out, they didn't, and now it's time to allow a coalition to give it a shot.
Also, another argument could be that if a coalition is stable enough to withstand the almost 2 month wait until parliament sits again, then the GG can have a much better confidence that it will be able to be stable enough to govern.
Equivocal enough? :shrug:
Mark
Well that's definitely fleshed out a few more issues we have yet to hear over here.
But seriously, how much of this is Harper just trying to cling on by his fingertips? From here it was presented that a vote of no confidence was almost a sure thing. If that really was the case, then what Harper did seems more like personal survival at all costs (hence my somewhat inflammatory Mugabe dig).
The no confidence vote was indeed a sure thing. That's why Harper ran to hide behind the Governor General's skirt. Much as I'm disappointed by the outcome, the GG did the best thing. It would be far worse for Canada to look upon her office a a place of partisanship. The fault lies with Harper that he would actually ask her to do that.
It should be pointed out that the Bloc would be in no different position with a coalition than they are now, they simply have declared their intentions up front. Don;t believe all the Conservative talking points about separatists holding power. They've proven that they'll say anything, even lie, even at the expense of national unity to keep office. We often talk about politicians being liars, but never in my life have I seen anything like this from the conservatives. "We would never do that", ... except of course when they tried to in 200 and again in 2004. "They're beholden to the separatists", ... just like the Conservatives have been for many votes in the House. "They wouldn't even be photographed in front of the Canadian flag", except for the fact that there were two of them there.
The real weakness for the coalition is the Liberal party itself. This is a party which is used to unfair majorities and power games themselves.They're also not all on the same page. Some want to oust their leader immediately while others want to wait until May. Keeping Dion in place for the sake of the coalition is a good thing, but if the GG decides to pass on the coalition and call an election then the Libs would be decimated with him at the helm.
The hard thing to accept is all the vicious attack ads that we're about to get from the government. In that they're also unprecedented. Never before has a government used advertising to discredit the opposition outside of an election.
We'll see how it goes, eh?
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Don't believe the Liberal talking points either. the only clear message out of the election was that the majority of the population didn't want Dion to lead the country, after the election his own part didn't want him to lead even the party. The smart move would have been to wait until at least they had chosen their new leader. I couldn't stomach Dion as Prime Minister, the man is a dolt. Then you have his assurance that he would never form a coalition with the NDP because their policies would be too damaging to the economy, then within a few weeks of the election he's hatched a deal with them. Personal Harper, Dion and Layton should all resign, none are looking out for the best interest of the country.
Absolutely, Hutch. The majority of Canadians didn't want Harper either, but not by quite as wide a margin.
I fail to understand your call for Layton's resignation though. I can't see how he has misstepped anything in this.
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Originally Posted by xman
General ineffectiveness? He's been there for years now, and can't seem to get past the union politics and make the NDP relevant again. I think the only leader who is a true leader and came out of this looking (and smelling) the best is Gilles (God, I can't believe I just said that!). I hate his politics of separation, but he's the only true politician there worth his salt.
Mark
Layton has continued to build the NDP's support and if it weren't for a sudden US housing crash two weeks before the election, I'm confident we would have seen more NDP MP's in parliament than we did. And Ducepe is a fascinating character. He can do what none of the other parties leaders I can vote for do and that is speak the truth to the "rest of Canada" without being concerned with how it affects his support. That makes him oddly attractive doesn't it? Sure doesn't hurt that he's doing a decent job in other respects either.
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