"I cannot have confidence in a prime minister who would throw the locks on the door of this place, knowing that he's about to lose a vote in the House of Commons. That's denying about as fundamental a right as one has in a democracy." Jack Layton
Yeah, right Jack. And creating a backroom coalition designed to deny an elected government the ability to govern immediately after it has been voted in by the people is a bastion of democracy. It may be constitutional in a parliamentary democracy, but it it certainly cannot be viewed as democratic. Jack, niether you nor Stephane Dion can claim that you have even come close to earning the honour of leading a government with each party earning below 25% of the vote.
Theoretically, Canadians vote for the party and not the Prime Minister. Theoretically. In reality Canadians cast their votes based on who will lead parliament. You are crying wolf because the Conservatives are not providing enough stimulus for the economy. How disingenuine! The Conservatives, and the Liberals before them, have spent the past decade putting the Canadian economy in a position of strength for inevitable recessions. The Canadian economy is in better shape than any of the other G20 countries as this recession deepens. And the Conservatives have stated all fall that they are about to spend to stimulate the economy. Despite voting confidence for the throne speech a week earlier, you have decide to take over government a week later because it wasn't planning on spending enough to stimulate the government - even though the budget was not to be released until January.
Jack, what you and Bob, Mike, Stephane, and Gilles are really pissed off about is that Steven Harper poked you in the eye by attempting to turn off the party subsidy spigot that you so much rely on for campaign financing. This is why you want to overthrow the government. Oh yeah, and I forgot that whatever CUPE wants, you want too. And when CUPE is potentially denied to the right to hold taxpayers hostage every three years or so, that makes you want to overthrow the government.
Steven Harper pulled a boneheaded move. It was arrogant and overly partisan to shut off the spigot. Your reaction is worse.
I hope that there is an election in January. At that time I bet that the voters will demonstrate what they really think about this move. And the Conservatives will run away with a majority.
Yeah, Jack. You are are a pillar of democratic procedure. But do you really care about the democratic will of voters? Errr...not so much.
This morning, I heard Dr David Suzuki say that Harper had been big enough to apologize to the First Nations, and the a number of ethnic groups who had been mistreated through history. He thought that if Harper had been able to apologize for his "bone-headed moves", he would have increased his own stature and support.
ReplyDeleteBut the forementioned apologies were made on behalf of the Canadian people. Harper is a brilliant strategist, but seems to be emotionally underdeveloped.
When things backfire, using a diversionary ("look over there") tactic (separatists will rip us apart) to consciously mobilize support in one area of Canada to rise up against another is going to come back and bite him big time. A simple (and humble) apology would have made such a big difference.
JMHO
I totally agree. Mr. Harper needs to demonstration some serious contrition to save his hide. I wonder if he has it in him? A simple apology would show Canadians that he, in fact, cares about the impact of the economy on regular people at the expense of his own ego. I think his "separatist" attack could hurt his chances for ever getting a majority.
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