Well I can't say I'm surprised. Just disgusted.
Michael Ignatieff had a chance to do the right thing, and stand up for the rights of poor Canadians, women, and children.
But instead he sold us all out. He'll blow Stephen Harper and "swallow hard" for the price of a meaningless amendment
Ignatieff is attempting to legislate something that's already there anyway by constitutional convention. All he's adding is a timetable, which, frankly, doesn't amount to much.
He didn't even have the guts or the decency to ask for changes to Employment Insurance, so many more Canadians could be eligible for benefits, instead of being driven into poverty and misery. Now there are two Conservative Parties in Canada: Harper's LibCons, and Ignatieff's ConLibs.
And for what? Does he really believe he can win an election against Harper all by himself? When the reason he's doing relatively well in the polls is mostly due to his popularity in Quebec.
But only because Quebecers saw him as a better Coalition leader than Stephane Dion. Now that he's stabbed the Coalition in the back, they'll call him a QUISLING and abandon him in droves.
And does he realize that by killing the Coalition that could have made him Prime Minister, he has only encouraged Stephen Harper to go gunning for an EARLY election? The one he craves to try to bankrupt the opposition parties. The one the Liberals can't afford.
Because now if he's defeated, Stephen Harper can tell the Governor General the Coalition is dead, and she'll have no choice but to grant him an election. Brilliant eh?
The Coalition for Change offered us all kinds of new possibilities. A chance to topple Stephen Harper's foul neocons before he damages our country even more and shames us further in the eyes of the world. A chance to unite the progressive left, and reclaim the Canada we've lost.
But instead Ignatieff opted to collaborate with Harper, by putting his Party before his country, and stabbing the dream in the back. So now it's No We Can't.
Instead of Yes We Can...
But he will not succeed. You can't kill something as strong and as beautiful as that. Sooner or later the progressive left will realize that we're living in different times, and that as long as we don't unite the Cons will rule FOREVER.
Sooner or later the Liberals will understand what they have done. Weaklings. Cowards. Quislings.
Sooner or later the Coalition will be back. Which is why I won't be removing the Coalition emblem from my sidebar.
Ever.
Because to me it will always stand for hope.
Ignatieff and his ConLibs may have betrayed it.
But the dream will never die...
15 comments:
Good on you, Montreal Simon.
I thought that Duceppe nailed it with his comments today.
Many people in Canada have been impressed with Mr. Duceppe's forth rightness.He doesn't beat about the bush.
I have a feeling we will not see any more discussion of coalition governments until we have a truly democratic electoral process with proportional representation.
My letter to the Liberals
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Do you have no confidence that the Liberal have shown better economic management in past?
Do you doubt the Conservatives polices such as CHMC extending mortgages to 40yrs without down payments have not increase problems for banks in Canada?
Do you not better understand the Governments roll of balancing individual and social cost, education, health care better then the Conservatives.?
Do not believe you are more capable of leading Canada through this major economic correction?
Obviously you don't believe in yourselves.
The economic incompetent Conservatives should have been removed!!!
Now by supporting the Conservatives and not removing them, you have show that you believe you are no more competent than them.
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So how can I believe in you either?
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Well T guess that I was right. The Coalition is DOA, the Liberals are going to support the budget and Stephen Harper will remain PM for the foreseeable future.
Ignatieff must have seen his polling numbers, taken a look at the Liberal Party's finances, looked at the polls again and decided that an election now would be suicide for the Party and if the budget didn't pass there would be just that, an election right now. So he decided to make nice with the Tories and hope to buy some time to rebuild. If he wants to remain leader this is the best course, rather than have an election and give the Tories their Majority.
You all know that I'd sooner have the Tory majority, but then we do disagree on a lot of things, apart from the fact that we both are proud to be Canadian. And maybe there are a few other places where we are in agreement too, and some of them may be surprising.
Worse than worthless--that's Iggy.
Suddenly, we know why he couldn't win an actual, democratic leadership vote.
If you find a blog called Constitution Acts, with a subtitle: House Rules:
You will see that it is signed by several prominent Canadian deans and professors of Law schools and poli sci academics. They conclude that the GG would, with a nonconfidence vote need to ask the leader of the opposition to form the government and not choose an election because there has NOT been enough time passed since the previous election.
The Liberals ,therefore didnot have to risk going for an election.
Sorry. I don't know how to copy and paste but I passed this on thru emails to several people in my constituency last night.
Too bad the press didnot feature it. It should have been FRONT PAGE.
Surely, Mr Ignatieff and caucus were aware of this??
constitutionacts.blogspot.com
Hope that gets you there.
"A chance to unite the progressive left"
Really?! You must mean the Bloc and the NDP here, because the Liberals have *never* been "progressive" (except when they were forced into it by a minority government situation, supported by the NDP). The Liberals are ALL about one thing above EVERYTHING else -- winning elections. To do this, they campaign from the left, and then rule from the right, and to hell with any suckers who were conned by their "progressive" talk. At least the Harpokons *have* an ideology, as scummy as it is; the Liberals have no ideology beyond winning power for themselves.
I say it's time to Unite the Right. Which won't happen until the Liberals and Conservatives join ranks and leave terms such as "progressive" for political parties that *deserve* them.
Hi Oemissions...thanks...you know I have a lot of respect for Gilles Duceppe, and I think a lot of Canadians do too. They may not like his sovereignist option, but nobody can deny that he is a decent guy who is a big defender of our so-called Canadian values.
I also thought by agreeing to a subordinate role in the Coalition he put his country before his party and for that alone he should be commended...
Hi RWW...I disagree. I think proportional representation is great, but it's not coming anytime soon. In the meantime we have a highly regionalized country where 30 plus percent of Canadians are telling 60 plus percent of the others what to do....in a time of crisis.
The Coalition will be back because it will become obvious to the left that unles they unite in some form, the Cons will rule forever...
Hi Socially Active...a good letter that makes absolute sense. You know before the crisis came along I was opposed to the Cons because of their narrow mean ideology.
But now with a recession closing in on us it's their complete incompetence that worries me the most.
The Conservatives don't seem to understand that the Great Recession has changed everything. And that they are now the dinosaurs of the political world, so they must either change or disappear. Needless to say I'm hoping for the latter... :)
Hi Benjamin.....AAARGH...I have to admit...painfully... that you were right about the first part....and that your analysis on what led him to that decision is bang on.*gasp* :)
Although I'm almost sure that there wouldn't have been an election if Iggy had defeated the government, because the GG would have allowed the Coalition to form a government.
But what I'm absolutely convinced of is that you're too reasonable and nice to really want a Harper majority. I mean who would want it, but once you saw what it looked like you would regret it. Because it would be too mean and nasty. In short Benjamin I'm counting on you and other decent Conservatives to take back your party and make it the hopelessly wrongminded but decent Canadian party it once was. So don't let me down eh?
P.S. if we agree on something I absolutely MUST know. So I can change my position hastily... ;)
Hi Bina...OMG what a disappointment. As you know I'm a bit of a hopeless idealist, but the Coalition relly did raise my hopes and now I'm picking them off the floor...
But I'll pick them and myself up and the struggle will continue...
Hi Oemissions... I agree that an election would not have been needed. I have read what other constitutional experts had to say, and I truly believe that the GG would have had really no choice but to ask the Coalition to form a government. I guess the Liberals didn't want to take the risk that she would call an election. And I can understand their hesitation. But when your country is in such a fix, and Stephen Harper such a threat, sometimes you just have to go for it...
hi 'berto...there is a lot of truth to what you say. But I am willing to work with the Liberals right now because my absolute priority is freeing our country from Harper's neocon grip.
I also think that in the long run the Liberals are in danger of being squeezed from both ends. Losing some of their supporters to the Cons and others to the NDP. On the other hand now that the Cons have morphed into quasiLiberals I'm confused. I'm going to have to feed all this data into my handcranked Political Predictor before I get back to you.... :)
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