Well, Mr. Harper has managed to convince Her Majesty's representative, Governer General Michaëlle Jean to prorogue Parliament until January 26th, which means that we are effectively without a functional government for the next seven weeks. Way to go, Steve - instead of either trying to reach consensus with the other Members of Parliament elected by 62% of the 59% of the population of this apathetic bloody excuse for a country who bothered to vote [Note: To any suddenly rabid Tory supporters reading this who have been screaming about the coalition but didn't bother to vote, I suggest you go into the kitchen and dish yourself up a nice big bowl of "shut the fuck up".], we're stuck with a minority government who'd rather spend the better part of the next two months taking cheap shots at the opposition from behind the Queen's skirts. Nice.
I'm not saying I don't have grave misgivings about the whole notion of a coalition government, particularly one led by Stephane Dion, who's got so many daggers stuck into his back at the moment that he resembles a pincushion. However, the fact that Mr. Harper seems to feel that he can govern this country as though he'd been handed a landslide majority in the last election damn well needs to be answered with a resounding, "Hell no, you didn't." The fact that he decided to turn a plan to deal with the economic crisis into an attempt to financially eviscerate his political opponents makes him look not only like an arrogant idiot, but a mean-spirited asshole as well, particularly considering that the $30 million that the government would have saved by cutting the political party funding is basically just a drop in the bucket.
Ms. Jean's hands may well be tied by legal considerations, but this whole situation makes me inclined to join the anti-monarchist faction.
The only silver lining here might be the fact that if the public can muster sufficient outrage over this, the Tories might consider acting like adults and negotiate with the other parties.
Oh, and as far as the carrying on about the Liberals and NDs getting into bed with [OMFG] the scary treasonous separatists - when was the last time Quebec separation was seriously on the political agenda? Seriously - the Bloc hasn't said boo about it since 1995. They're basically a left-leaning regional party. You know, the way the Reform Party was a right-leaning regional party before they got sick of being ignored by Ottawa, held their noses, and got into bed with the Tories.
5 comments:
Look, if you're going to post comments, say something worthwhile instead of just whoring out your own site, mmkay?
But whats the solution? If the "coalition" took the Conservatives' place, who would be new PM? Dion? Liberals as the leaders? They had terrible results in election, voters showed their opinion about Liberal program...But if Harper survives, there will be another try to take him down late and another one and another.
So are we heading AGAIN towards election?
I think I will stop reading political news and start enjoying coming Christmas :)
Best wishes
Jay
Seeing as how my voting practice consisted of "ask politically informed friends who is most likely to win in my riding next to the Conservatives and vote for that person without any interest in what party they are actually in," I suppose it is not surprising that the "anything that gets Harper out" side of the coalition is favorable in my view. :)
Certain relatives I know who were pissed about the coalition were actually just as pissed about the Liberals joining with the NDP as with either of those two joining with the Bloc. Apparently Dion had claimed up and down that he wouldn't do that, or so I'd heard anyway. This suggests to me that there is perhaps a 'scary commies!!!' factor as well as a 'scary separatists!!!' factor here. Though in any case, I think your point comparing Bloc vs. Reform is awesome. :D
Personally though, I don't have many issues with the coalition idea. I'm not fond of them wasting time squabbling and looking stupid, but to me that's still preferable to Harper having the chance to do any of several various things he might do in the future that are contrary to my interests as a female academic.
One other concern I have though is: regardless of who is in power in the new year, if they think 'economic stimulus package' means 'bail out North American automakers in Canada,' I am going to be really pissed off. That whole "let's make big cars that nobody wants and pay our employees to NOT WORK" lot can go fuck themselves as far as I'm concerned.
After the drama of the last few weeks, now I just feel terribly sorry for Stephane Dion. Granted, he had little charisma and his English-language skills weren't really up to par for a potential PM of Canada, but whatever else might be said of him, he was a decent man. History, at least in the short term, is very unkind to idealists. Look at Jimmy Carter.
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