Potentials for a Parliamentary Coalition

Well, 67% of Canadians voted against the Conservatives in the just-passed election, and if things go as they appear to be heading, we may actually get a true democratic government in Canada yet!  My thinking is that this is the way a truly democratic nation would win.

The Conservatives changed the way Ridings were made up when in power earlier, so that things were skewed enough that traditionally Liberal or NDP voting areas were torn apart and regrouped with more Conservative thinking areas, to lessen the chances of them gaining seats.  And while they may have garnered a greater number of seats this time around (partially due to this Riding manipulation), that the majority of Canadians voted against them should count for something.

So I truly hope that if (when) this proposed coalition is put in place, that they pass a law that requires some sort of coalition to be formed in any given parliament to create a large enough “working” body of people (who are truly committed to working toward getting something done for those who voted them in, not just to line their own pockets or pay off their buddies) that we actually do have government, and not some pseudo kindergarten where the children scrap over the “toys”.

I think Harper (particularly) is the most two-faced piece of bad-acting we've ever had in government.  Even his own caucus is “somewhat” annoyed with him for putting that political funding measure on the table with everything else.  Especially since everything else didn't include any kind of stimulus to the Canadian economy.

So his about-face in the last two weeks before the election (when he earlier claimed we didn't have anything to worry about here in Canada regards “recession”) was only an act - because he and Flaherty - golden boy of the Ontario Harris government that sold Ontario down the river - are still unwilling to acknowledge that we have a crisis situation NOW - and it's not going to wait until late January for them to try to stimulate it back to life.  By that time, the corpse will be cold!  Forget about life support!!!

My only concern and deep wish is that if Stephan Dion is leading this rat-pack, that it is only in name.  Let Bob Rae, or Jack Layton, or even (God forbid!) Ignatief lead.  Make this work, because if it doesn't, we will be sucking the hind teet of the USA (and probably the world) for years to come.  I don't want that for my kids and my grand-kids, and I still need to put bread on my table and maybe a few loaves in the freezer for later down the road.

Re: Potentials for a Parliamentary Coalition

Just a bit more ranting here……

Know what burns my a$$? - that a Governor General, not even a natural born Canadian, who was off spending our taxpayer dollars galavanting around the globe would cut the trip short (but most of it would already have been paid for - therefore more waste) to come back and hold Harpers' snotty hand (but Ma, they're so mean to me!!!) and grant him his Prorogue so he can fiddle around for the next month and a half, waste more time and tax-payer dollars, and not have anything of a REAL stimulus package to show for the delay come late January.

I do hope that the people of Quebec NEVER vote for another Conservative - Harper's speech Wednesday night made Quebecers all sound like subversives.  I'm not siding with or against anyone in Quebec here - just making the point that if a Prime Minister can be so insensitive (and moveover two-faced) to a bunch of people he was courting votes from less than a month ago, then he and his party have demonstrated why he is not fit to run this country, and should never think they'll be forgiven for saying what he said last night, and hope to get those peoples votes.

As for Dion, well, he proved quite adequately that he's a lame duck leader last night, too.  I'll tell you, there are not too many really good choices left for Canadians when hoping to find someone that actually has the brains and know-how (and can walk and chew gum at the same time, maybe) to be a decent leader.  From a long, back-and-forth email discussion I had with a die-hard Liberal the other night, apparently the main worry of the Liberals who were opposed to the coalition was that Jack Layton might lead it.  Well, God Forbid that would happen!!! (That's sarcasm in case you're not familiar with my political leanings).  About the only other person in that coalition who actually has his sh*t together is Gilles Duceppe, apparently, with the terms he had set out for his parties participation in it. 

So - any takers on bets for what's going to happen because of this delay, and because no one could get their act together well enough to prevent this fiaso?  I just get the feeling that the silence here is probably quite reflective of the majority of Canadians - but is it a silence from being “stunned into silence” by what has transpired this week, or is it a “silence of apathy”?  Maybe a lot of both, I'm thinking.

Re: Potentials for a Parliamentary Coalition

Sorry, Gem, I was away with little access to Gaia or Canadian news.

What do you think of Rae bowing out, and supporting Ignatieff as Liberal leader?

They're saying he is lukewarm about the coalition.

By the way I was one of those who “shunned” the election yesterday - Almost half of Quebec voters shunned polls

Actually, I was away during all the advance polls and arrived home just after the polls closed.

I am glad to see that the low turnout worries them! They should be worried.

Cheers,

Nicole

Re: Potentials for a Parliamentary Coalition

Hi Nicole:

Well, I knew you were pretty much out of commission so I didn't really expect you to comment before you were back home.  I was hoping someone else had at least considered the comments - not necessarily to agree with me, either - but perhaps to express that recent happenings haven't struck everyone dumb.

As to Bob Rae backing down and giving the nod to Ignatief - I might actually have considered supporting the Liberals in the next election if Rae had been the leader.  Not likely now.  Rae would have been less likely (more than less actually) to become a pawn for the USA if the Liberals claimed power.  Ignatief lived there for I think it was 25 years, and only recently came back to Canada, and almost immediately began sniffing around parliament like a dog in heat.  I'm thinking that he's more of the plan than we know right now, that I squawked about in my blogs here on Gaia and elsewhere early in 2008 and going back as far as that “Three Amigo” party in Quebec in August 2007.  Can anyone say “American plant”?  Most people fail to realize that what we see as the outworkings in our political systems are stuff that is put in motion years before it finally has a face in public.

So no, I'm not at all happy with Rae's decision.  Personally, I don't think he belongs in the Liberal party anyways, but Jack Layton and Elizabeth Chow pretty well have a lock on the NDP leadership for the next forseeable future, and Rae really doesn't like to be second toad on the stool, but he also knows that he's more likely to have influence in the Liberal party by staying put, at least for now.  I think eventually he will find his true feelings and cross the floor to the NDP corner.

With Ignatief at the helm, the coalition idea is pretty well dead.  But I don't think he'll roll over and play dead for Harper either, so I'm going to make the prediction that we're probably going to be heading to the voting booth before the middle of March '09.  I think that was one of the considerations of why Rae stepped back now, because with Ignatief solidly in place, it's almost a sure thing that the party will vote in unison to oust Harper.  The NDP certainly won't support anything Harper throws up there, if it doesn't throw huge support to the public sector and unions, and they certainly don't want him to stay in power to try later to cut funding to political parties.  Pretty much the same for the Bloc.  So, while the coalition may be a corpse defacto, it's aura will still be hanging around for a while.

While I am glad to see that Quebec will get some stability from a pro Canadian majority party for the next few years, I have to give my head a shake when I look at who is leading that party.  It wasn't too many years ago that Jean Charette was a Conservative, vying for the leadership of that party, and was woo'd over to the leadership of the Liberal party to help preserve unity between the rest of Canada and Quebec. So I'm really wondering if there is any real difference between the Liberal and Conservatives in this country.  Politics certainly makes for strange bed-fellows, n'est pas? Thinking of a remark made recently by a now infamous hockey player, which would probably get me thrown out of Gaia were I to actually put it in print. ;)

Other than the weather being crap in Quebec for the election - a risk I guess Charette felt was worth taking when he called the election - I think generally ALL Canadians are tired of being asked to take time to go to the polls, mark their X's, and then basically end up for the next few years wondering why the hell they bothered.  We just don't have leadership here that inspires, and until we do, provincially and federally, we're probably going to see more of, not less, voter apathy happening clear across Canada.  Could we find a leader like Obama - who inspired a much larger than usual voter turn-out in the US?  Probably not - because even though we vote Liberal and Conservative back and forth pretty much on a par, we are still a much more “conservative” country at heart.  Those small “c” conservatives cling to tradition like a life-raft.  So I think, unfortunately, we are doomed to mediocrity for quite a while yet.

I will addendum this with the comment that Canadians should not expect to see much of any kind of financial relief or support from our Federal government (or trickle down from the provinces) until late May or June, and possibly as late as next September.  Our parliamentary system is extremely cumbersome where it comes to handing out money, although for some reason it has swift and arduous money collection (taxes) systems in place.  Just something to knaw on while you wait……  and wait……. and wait for January 26th to arrive.

Gem :)

Re: Potentials for a Parliamentary Coalition

I hear you, Gem.

And though I hadn't been able to follow the news, a quick Google search was enough to find within seconds the quote I'm pretty sure you had in mind :) Yes. Indeed.

Sigh,

Nicole