Who else is absolutely embarrassed at the idea of “Prime Minister Stephane Dion”? This is a man who is almost totally unintelligible in English; someone whose main platform was stomped into the ground after it lost the election for him; someone who, it will be noted, has already said he would resign from the Liberal party by next year. And yet, magically, he’s our Prime Minister! Geeeeeeesh.
And lest we forget that one-third of this coalition is the Bloc Quebecois - you know, those people who are committed to breaking up Canada? And whose leader couldn’t even answer questions in English? And who don’t even have any seats outside Quebec?
The three leaders can barely keep their act straight in an official press meeting (Dion and Duceppe were already sniping at each other and Jack Layton was jumping in to answer questions that weren’t directed at him and didn’t concern him). What a mess.
I think it would be funny if the Queen steps in to prevent Jean from accepting Dion’s proposal. The anti-monarchy party being bailed out by the monarchy to prevent the pro-monarchy party from coming into power through undemocratic methods. Ironeeeeeeeeeeeeee.
Also, why’s Dion doing this? Proposed plan to cut federal funding of elections?
I find the very idea of this coalition to be comedy gold. I have a bad taste in my mouth from the previous election because I found none of the parties to be appealing. I am by far not a green. I dislike Stephane Dion and his ideas on being green intensely. Comparing Canada, a country of barely 30 million people to the industrial and social development of China and India who have 1/3+ the population of our planet, is like putting a small tree in the middle of a Los Angeles highway. Its called missing the fucking point.
I’m too centrist for the NDP and the conservative party. I liked some of Harper’s ideas on governmental reform like reforming the useless, piece of crap, unrepresentative senate we have and to set up a coherent and timed election scheme, to name a couple; however he wasted away any good will I had towards him by renouncing on his own pledge to reform the election system when trying to get himself a majority before the economy tanked and whatever government was in power became intensely unpopular. There are a few other things I did not like, such as the complete lack of transparency he brought with him and flipflopping on the ethics issues when he ended up not dropping his corrupt ministers. So what was I left with? Nothing. On the upside, Harper cut my taxes and gave me tax credits on my bus passes, and I appreciated that, despite my disagreement with the Harper government on certain social issues.
However, I much prefer the idea of a minority government in such a situation than a majority government because I don’t want these platforms I don’t like to have too much of a chance to actually come to fruition. The idea that the Bloc is actually going to play an active role in governing the country has been a secret fantasy of mine for years because it goes against its very idea to exist. This contradiction is something which I savor like little else. I never thought I would actually see the day. Not because I like the bloc, but because I DISlike the bloc. They’re a waste of taxpayer money, they have no ideas, no purpose to exist other than to stick their foot up someone’s ass and stir shit up without ever having to face the situation they might actually one day have to put up. And now is that day. My consolation that the liberals are at the helm is that Stephane Dion is on his fucking way out. I’m not too hot for his potential replacements, so I guess we’ll see how it goes. It can’t possibly be worse than Jean Charest, whom I like about as much as Pauline Marois. Fucking asshole.
I also like the idea of the coalition government because I hate coalition governments. I dislike the idea of having multiple redundant parties and this is a way to make everyone unhappy.
So basically you want everyone you hate to lead our country? I guess that tells me all I need to know about what you think of that job. 8p And I don’t think I’d necessarily disagree with you.
I also had a very hard time voting in the past election. I ended up voting for Harper despite my slight distaste for him because I couldn’t stand Dion or Layton and I didn’t like Elizabeth May’s electioneering and a few of her more outré platform points. However, any goodwill I had towards Harper has gone out the window in the last few weeks. He’s been acting like a complete jerk. I still think he probably had the best idea in terms of the economy, or rather he had the only idea in terms of the economy. I’m not too confident in the new coalition’s ability to anything but make an already bad situation worse.
984: I think that’s the main reason behind it, which is why so many people are incensed. Seriously, most non-politicians couldn’t really care less whether or not parties are funded by the government, so this coalition, ostensibly for the “good of the country”, is really for the well-being of the parties in question.
I’m not sure which I dislike more - the idea that the coalition would come to power, or the possibility of Michaelle Jean forcing another election less than two months after the previous one and blowing another $300 million we don’t have. Frankly, in the latter case I doubt anyone would want to vote for any party after this circus.
Pretty much. Its not like they’re doing anything anyway. I think this change in dynamics will be good. This kind of situation will force everyone to change and act accordingly and these actions will be judged by the electorate. With all parties out of their comfort zones, we’re bound to have some interesting things happen, like display the worthless redundancy of the Bloc.
I agree that things will get worse before they get better, but I don’t think that any party or coalition will have much real power over any of it for at least a good chunk of time (judging by what happened in the US). By getting worse, hopefully the electorate will be a bit more energized. In the meantime, we get to throw bile at the Quebec provincial election.
Dion and the other parties are doing this because they realized that they were becoming increasingly irrelevant. They have not been organized , they have not come up with a message, much less ideas, to be able to push forward and form a majority government. In the meantime, they’ve been propping up an increasingly beligerent conservative party as they twiddled their thumbs under Dion’s lack of leadership. I’m honestly a bit confused as to what the NDP are waiting for. Anyway, after the last election, all the parties looked down their pants and decided to stop being the conservative party’s doormats and thus we have this wonderful situation in front of us.
Yeah, Dion’s “henglish” is almost as good as Harper’s French, but perfectly bilingual upper echelon politicos likeTrudeau, Mulroney or Martin are almost exceptional.
I was tempted to tag this coup as “Mickey Mouse” politics at first, but looking back at the election results, it seems like the coalition potential power grab is more democratic than conservative’s rule.
The majority of Canadian voters would be better represented with the “three amigos” taking over. http://www.sfu.ca/~aheard/elections/results.html
But how the amigos could reconcile their parties’ mostly mutually exclusive agendas is beyond me.
Yeah, Dion’s “henglish” is almost as good as Harper’s French, but perfectly bilingual upper echelon politicos likeTrudeau, Mulroney or Martin are almost exceptional.
I think having a PM that speaks English well is far more important than one who speaks French well. Our biggest trading partner, the US, generally speaks no French at all, and (as far as I know) the vast majority of Canada still has English as their first language (or if they don’t, their first language certainly isn’t French).
I was tempted to tag this coup as “Mickey Mouse” politics at first, but looking back at the election results, it seems like the coalition potential power grab is more democratic than conservative’s rule.
Simple mathematics would show that the majority (percentage of votes received by the parties) will be in power with the “three amigos” taking over. http://www.sfu.ca/~aheard/elections/results.html
But how the amigos could reconcile their parties’ mostly mutually exclusive agendas is beyond me.
Depends what you mean by “democratic”. Assuming all three parties do create one monolithic “party”, then technically you’re right, the majority will be ruling. (Not based on number of votes, but number of elected seats, which is a very different kettle of fish.) However, the likelihood of that being reality is starting very low and is only going to get worse. What we really have is three totally separate ideologies and a whole lot of bickering.
Agree, but without more than just a basic knowledge of French, the chances of a Canadian politician becoming country’s leader are not as good as of a perfectly bilingual a la Mulroney candidate. This is our political culture—got to live with that. Apparently one of the reasons that the hottest Canadian politician, Belinda Stronach, dropped out of the last Liberal leadership contest was her insufficient knowledge of the “other” official language. Too bad – I’d rather see her as our Prime Minister, than Dion or Harper.
Ok, I’ll settle for Ignatieff.
Depends what you mean by “democratic”. Assuming all three parties do create one monolithic “party”, then technically you’re right, the majority will be ruling. (Not based on number of votes, but number of elected seats, which is a very different kettle of fish.) However, the likelihood of that being reality is starting very low and is only going to get worse. What we really have is three totally separate ideologies and a whole lot of bickering.
Just edited “the percentage of votes” out in my previous post; and coalition’s combined number of elected seats exceeds those of Harper’s team, indeed.
Wasn’t sure what to call it, considering it happened well after the election was over.
And I don’t see how it leads to greater representation. We’re still represented by the same number of people. The only thing that’s really changed is who our Prime Minister is going to be and what the likelihood is of the “party” in power getting their bills passed. However, that likelihood assumes that all three parties are actually going to agree on said bills, and the Liberals and NDP are so far apart on some issues (such as corporate tax cuts) that the only way that’ll happen is by one or the other totally skewering their own platforms. The bickering has already started and it’ll only get worse.
Now I wonder how many of Liberal MPs will stick to the plan with a lame-duck leader and their constituents crying foul about the unholy union with socialists and separatists. I’ll bet that Flaherty’s budget will pass without any major glitches (a few Grits will simply abstain to vote) when Parliament comes back.
I’d say that Quebec bids adieux to Canada as soon as the 40 trillion cubic feet of natural gas Utica shale’s development goes into production stage, and Quebec finally shakes off its have-not province status.
Or Quebec might jump back on the independence bandwagon when Alberta’s separatists get more than 0.5% of the popular vote in the election.
I agree. This gives everyone a breather to step back and realize that the Conservatives have given in on pretty much every single reason the opposition has given to creating the coalition in the first place. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them abandon the idea. But Stephen Harper’s days are numbered, and I’m sure there’ll be an election sooner rather than later (probably soon after Dion retires).
Frankly, I wouldn’t really be sad to see Quebec go. A Canada where I don’t have to put up with French everywhere despite the fact that nobody in Ontario speaks it? Sign me up! 8p
I read an editorial in the Globe and Mail that what the Governor General did could set a precedent for future Prime Ministers. Does anybody think the same?
Oh, I meant greater representation by the governing party. The past year here has been spent seeing how long the governing’s party majority of [STRIKE]152[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]151[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]152[/STRIKE] 151 MPs is going to last before they reach 150 and it’s time for gov. change.
