This government's style has to be admired. One day they are blaming all around them for everything they've done while seeking no part in creating a national vision (and working hard to disassemble any idea of a national vision) and the next they are begging their sworn and sworn at enemies to get them out of a pickle made of their own weakness:
Federal Tories who threatened to force an election over the Senate's protracted study of a crime bill now want the upper chamber to play ball with them in killing an opposition bill that would provide tax relief for parents saving for their children's education. The turn-about was suggested yesterday as a way for the Conservative government to block a bill that it says will cost the treasury upward of $1-billion a year. "There's some reasonably minded senators that will look at this and say ‘this is not good news for taxpayers,'" said MP Ted Menzies, the parliamentary secretary to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.Wasn't there some sort of discussion recently that budget matters were matters of confidence? So how is it that this measure, which is claimed to be one that will tip the overall fiscal plan into the red is not a confidence matter? Maybe because it will really not tip the balance? And what is really wrong with this proposal? It actually makes a lot of sense in itself, a lot more than the farce of the beer and popcorn money that is no more than a overlapping bureaucracy of redistribution from the urban to the rural - a far more expensive and less productive measure that has been really bad news for taxpayers.
What it really is is this - the thin edge of the wedge. I think what we are seeing is the beginning of the end. This version of the Tories are slipping back to their natural place in the 20% of popular support, the opposition is finally getting the tiniest bit of traction in large part to Jack getting it on and we are coming to see Harper as an interim step to nowhere...sort of like the government's fundamentally stunned plan for the train to nowhere, itself really bad news for taxpayers despite it being a massive make work project in the Finance Minister's own backyard.
Update: Finally! The Liberal Party of Canada appears to have rediscovered how to express an idea after about seven years in the wilderness:
Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion says Quebecers would stage a "revolution" if their province were treated the way Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government is treating Ontario. Accusing Finance Minister Jim Flaherty of waging a "vendetta" against Ontario, Dion told the Star editorial board yesterday that the Harper government would never dare to treat Quebec the same way – and that Quebec would never tolerate it.Keep up that kind of excellent accusatory politicking and I could daydream of imagining of possibly considering to maybe vote for youse all one day perhaps.
Comments
Ben (The Tiger) - March 8, 2008 12:46 pm
I'd be more inclined to instigate a hue-and-cry over confidence motions had the opposition not made it abundantly clear that it wanted no part of an election.
But if one wishes to call this the defeat of the government, well then, let's go, let's go!
I want a winter election. I like winter elections.
Alan - March 8, 2008 12:58 pm
I just like elections. I think the NDP may push for one hoping for 40 seats.
Ben (The Tiger) - March 8, 2008 1:37 pm
Oh, I'm with you -- I like elections in general. But I especially like winter ones.
sean liddle - March 8, 2008 2:17 pm
Ben, have you ever spent your lunch hours and after work hours pounding in lawn signs and canvassing with the candidates? If you did, then you, like me, would prefer a nice spring or fall election. Although when my party is not in power, such as now, I love a nice blistering hot summer election, because most tory supporters are too busy bringing in the wheat, sunning beside their big oil money bought lakes or asking a nurse to change the channel in the common room to have the time to help campaign.
All that said, as I am not a Dionista, I'm happy for an election any time so we can have an excuse to replace him ASAP a few weeks later.
Ben (The Tiger) - March 8, 2008 4:29 pm
Actually, yes, I have. (Got a nasty splinter in my hand in a Haligonian suburb. Was silly of me to volunteer for a Tory in Halifax. I was young & naive.)
It isn't fun.
But I enjoy the spectacle of the political class prostrating itself before the electorate even more, and I enjoy it all the more if it's in bad weather.
It's good for their character.
sean liddle - March 8, 2008 8:08 pm
The problem is, whenever a vote of any sort is made difficult for all but the most wealthy, fit or able bodied, only the wealthy, fit and able bodied will vote.
Union strike votes held on school nights after 10 pm..
Leadership conventions for a national party being held in Toronto, during work days and on long weekends rather than making online and mail in voting available..
Elections held in the hottest part of summer or dead of winter..
All the above serve best those that choose the dates, location and method of voting more than deomocracy itself..
Ben (The Tiger) - March 8, 2008 10:19 pm
Well... I guess you'd best hope that Stephen Harper gets his way on election timing, then -- a glorious fall 2009 election. :p
sean liddle - March 10, 2008 11:40 am
Methinks thats when M. Dion would like one as well (insert sounds of many, many chickens bawking)...