The heat finally got to me today. I felt dizzy and even lazier than usual. But as I lay in my hammock under the old chestnut tree, things never seemed clearer.
Stephen Harper is a nasty monster. Dimitri Soudas is a coward.
Tony Clement is a cheap shill.
Bev Oda is odious. John Baird is a screamer. Vic Toews is a fascist sherriff who can't count.
And in case you haven't heard about it eh? Jason Kenney is a bigot and a LIAR.
So now I'm lying there in my hammock thinking OK, we KNOW that they are the most disgusting, dangerous, and incompetent government this country has ever seen. We KNOW that they are raping our Canadian values. We KNOW that they are making a mockery out of our Parliament. We KNOW that they lie about everything. We KNOW that they want to change our beautiful Canada beyond recognition.
So now all I need to know is what are we going to do about it? Because we're going nowhere.
Even though the solution has never seemed more OBVIOUS.
Michael Ignatieff and Jack Layton may want to get their minds around the controversial issue of a coalition or merger, given new national opinion poll numbers showing Stephen Harper’s Conservatives firmly locked in minority government territory
Considering today’s poll, Mr. Graves notes the two parties “enjoy 42 per cent of voter support which certainly elevates them from also-rans to clear contenders for power, perhaps even a majority.”
I've always been a coalition supporter. I've tried to be as non-partisan as possible, so nobody could ever accuse me of making it harder for the progressive parties to join forces and end the darkness of the Harper regime.
So these kind of words are music to my ears.
I’m not even necessarily calling for a merger or formal coalition, but the mentality in both camps MUST change. This is a fundamental prerequisite for any real change in this country.
The days of Liberals laughably calling the NDP ‘irrelevant’ when it wins nearly 3 million votes each election and holds seats, including relatively secure bastions where strong MPs are firmly ensconced, in every single region of the country, in Montréal and Alberta and across Ontario is an offensive joke. Similarly, the days of New Democrats farcically portraying the Liberals as reactionary criminals who’ve accomplished nothing for Canada – suggesting that they’re no different from the Tories must end.
I know it won't be easy to change old attitudes. I know I'm a dreamer eh? I admit it. But I simply refuse to accept that such a young country is so old and tired, it can't change with the times.
I know we can do it brothers and sisters, because we have come together before. And when I saw Liberals, NDPers, Greens, old people and young people coming together to defend our precious Canadian values it sent my spirit soaring.
I could feel the power of change, the strength of a nation awakening. And it was so AWESOME.
Remember?
Yup. Right now I'm too lazy to get out of my hammock eh? But now a full moon is shining through the chestnut leaves.
And this I do know.
Side by side. Back to back.
We will crush these Cons TOGETHER...
9 comments:
I was thinking much along the same lines, Simon, although I think a new party made up of the merged Greens and Dippers, with some lefty Liberals thrown in, is the best answer. Ignatieff and the modern Liberals are finished and a broad left coalition that leaves the centre-right Libs out of the equation could really work. More detail on my blog (he added shamelessly).
Coalitions come after elections. Hopefully the NDP and Grits can grab enough seats after the next election that neither of them seem to want to outnumber the Cons (or it will look illegitimate). The biggest thing for now is just keeping it on the table as a post election option. Each party still runs a full slate (although may perhaps run weaker candidates in two-way races) and competes until the end.
hi Scott...I'll leave the secret ingredients up to the profesionals, and settle for any recipe that puts the Cons in the oven. I wouldn't exclude anyone though, when it comes to saving Canada the more the merrier. And don't worry about the
shameless part because I've been visiting your blog for months only to find nobody at home. So I'm just glad you're back because I missed you... :)
hi Ian...you're right that both the Liberals and the NDP need to get enough seats to make this work. Since I'm a dreamer I would like to see the two parties collaborate to make strategic voting work for them. But I'll settle for the party leaders not ruling out a coalition BEFORE the election. And the reason I do is that I think after what happened in Britain Canadians might be happy to see something new and different. And that could help both parties and make their results bigger than just the sum of their parts...
Unfortunately Simon, I know that you know (because I've brought it up several times) that when asked in numerous surveys what their SECOND choice for national government is, a great honkin' shwack of Liberal supporters say... Conservative. (The same is not true for NDP supporters.)
anti-Conservatives =/= Liberal supporters =/= NDP supporters
hi 'berto...yes I'm aware of that, and it is mentioned in that article I linked to. But the way I see it that's just another reason to shakedown the political parties in this country. Draw a line in the sand, invite progressives to move to the left, and ask Cons to move to the right.
I mean right now we're just spinning our wheels, so I figure that ANYTHING is better than that...
"I mean right now we're just spinning our wheels, so I figure that ANYTHING is better than that..."
... except for the Conservatives.
hi 'berto...Yes. But some things don't have to be said... :)
Those who belong to the recognized faiths demand that the say-so of their obedience rests on revelation, and that pronouncement is confirmed in the pages of books and accounts of miracles and wonders whose features is supernatural. But those of us who have desire discarded the credence in the miraculous still are in the presence of revelations which are the purpose of faith. We too entertain our revealed religion. We procure looked upon the lineaments of men and women that can be to us the symbols of that which is holy. We enjoy heard words of sacred reason and truth oral in the human voice. In sight of the quarter there set up hit to us these experience which, when accepted, allow to us revelations, not of unexplainable doctrine, but of a regular and fated certitude in the holy powers that spark and labour in the center of [a mortal physically's] being.
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