[SebC]

Alright, just finished reading the thread, so I'm gonna address a lot of points in this post. I'll try to keep it organized and coherent.

Originally Posted by Jagger

What am I going to do, you ask? Fill out my Citizenship forms and become a bone-fide Canadian, that's what. [...] I'm proud to be British, I really am, but I 'feel' Canadian now too.

If you're like me, you can have both... it's fantastic (note to self, if country goes down the toilet, you have the right to work in the EU).

Originally Posted by FanIn80

I'd love to see a poll added to this thread.

1. Liberal/Socialist/Separatist Coalition
2. Election

This is a Calgary board. It really doesn't serve much purpose to do a poll here.

Originally Posted by Jade

I'm sorry, I must have missed the part of the definition of democracy that stated if you were a liberal you didn't have to follow the voters decision. Voters chose to give the Conservatives a minority government. Liberals didn't like it and decided to jump ahead. If 'in a democracy' the liberals get power no matter who we vote for, why do we vote?

Actually, if we all voted Conservative, the Liberals would not get power. The reason the Liberals are in power is because they still control the middle, which they would not if the Conservatives had won a majority government. Given that the Liberals control the middle, they must be included in any coalition - unless you start talking about truly unholy alliances between the right and the left cutting out the middle, e.g. Conservative-NDP coalition. This comes back to what I was saying in the other thread about the "median voter". Given that the Conservatives tried to cut them out of the political process by bankrupting them, it's not entirely surprising that they decided to ally with the left instead of the right (not that I support that decision).

Originally Posted by FanIn80

Well then give someone a majority! Minority Governments rarely work. Why is it so difficult to realize that the only way this crap is going to end is to just give someone a majority?

Canadians brought this on ourselves in the last election. The PCs told us why they called the election, and people didn't believe them. "It's OK" we said. "You can work together" we said.

Well now we find out exactly how greedy and power hungry the Socialists and Separatists really are. Now it's time to show up, come together and just pick a single friggin party to Govern.

Hmm... maybe because we disagree on who that party should be? Maybe because we don't like the Conservatives?

Originally Posted by ernie

The council would consist of 4 unelected people senior to the parties....Frank McKenna, Paul Martin, Roy Romanow and John Manley.

Again, to be fair, the Paul Martin did a much better job with the economy and the budget than Harper did.

Originally Posted by Ford Prefect

I don't have the heart to read through this whole thread to catch up, so perhaps this has already been mentioned.

All the partisan rhetoric aside, Stephen Harper's academic background is in economics. He's an economist. Isn't that who we want as PM during the economic crisis the globe is facing?

Sure, he has a degree in economics. He's also proven that he's willing to put all that knowledge aside to try to buy votes. The GST cut was the wrong tax cut at the wrong time.

Originally Posted by Thunderball

[On bribing "blue" Liberals to cross the aisle]Agreed. May as well sink to the same level as these crooks. At least the economy won't be decimated by Harper bribing a dozen Liberals with Cabinet posts. Note, the dollar lost its gains today and is down .64 cents on this already.

To be fair, the only reason we've had to deal with Harper's brutal economic policies is because the CPC was able to make a huge scandal of what was really a relatively small amount of money. Which makes your post (and also this whole situation) somewhat funny.

Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan

This is in my view a huge blunder for the Liberals. If they govern their way out of this recession, they may come out OK--but the optics are already very bad. If they also end up being a failed government, the party is toast for at least a decade. Very risky play, and I'm a little surprised that they don't see it. My hope is it's a bluff.

At this point, I don't see how it can be. Ignatieff held their last out, and it appears he isn't willing to use it. There's no way they can back down and save face anymore.

Originally Posted by transplant99

Agreed...funny thing is that during the election they were HAMMERED by liberals on this very board for even suggesting this very possibility.

Now that the New Libs on the Bloq is suggesting it? No problem.

Hey now. I'm still hammering them. I only supported the Liberals forming an alliance very specifically to deal with the campaign finance issue. Now I am fully against it, and still very much a Liberal (although becoming more and more disenfrachised by the party leadership, they are the "least bad" option for me as I can't stand social conservatism or NDP socialism.)

Originally Posted by oilers_fan

This is getting more and more depressing. What are the odds that the Governor General surprises us all and calls for an election? Probably not good.

One of my friends just posted on Facebook that he's hearing that she may resign. I haven't reached him to find out whether or not he was joking. That would really be something though... we'd be going to an election for sure, but it may not change anything. And if it doesn't, well it's rinse and repeat until someone gets a majority or one of the players gives in to the other.

Originally Posted by DFO

What a freaking mess - no easy solution. I'm astonished by Harper's piss poor judgement on this whole saga. Why would he push this agenda at a time like this? All I want them to be dealing with is some sound financial policy - not this partisan crap. I'm a conservative but they won't get another vote of mine until Harper is replaced.

I would hope that a new election is called with a new leader for the Conservatives.

Except that leader would probably be Prentice. And he's the biggest corporate hack in the CPC. Just look at Bill C-61. Special interest groups and corporate lobbyists would be the puppeteers pulling the strings on Prentice, and in my opinion that leads to an inefficient economy and in the end isn't good for anyone.

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Alberta and Saskatchewan should be kicking and screaming over this and putting motions into effect to protect this provinces and its Oil and Gas industry from the Cabal.

First statement when they take power, we don't accept your authority or recognize your government. Not dime one of our revenues will be flowing out of this province.

Heck, let's just shut off the TransCanada pipeline until they give us what we want.

Originally Posted by ikaris

The current equalization plan is based on fiscal capacity...

And does not whatsoever consider our higher costs of living, and to the government for things like infrastructure construction.

Originally Posted by ikaris

The money will likely come through borrowing (which the Conservatives would have done anyways).

Yeah, but that just delays the problem... when it comes to paying down this debt, who do you think is going to be paying for it?