Quote:
Originally Posted by Iowa_Flames_Fan
I should probably clarify that the "sleeping at night" comment was intended as tongue-in-cheek... really not trying to start a fight here.
In any case, I'm now even more puzzled. To wit, here are the facts of the situation as you and others have presented them.
The NDP, Liberals and Bloc "working together" amounts to a coup. This is because
a) there was a written agreement
b) it was six weeks after an election
c) some polls showed Canadians didn't like the idea.
The Tories and the Bloc or NDP "working together" is a good idea. This is because
a) this part confuses me. Something to do with "usurping power," which is a term that as I understand it has no applicability in a democracy.
b) some logic about how the tories are "the government" and so therefore others should "work with" them and not the other way around.
Really, the democratic principles that this argument rests on are pretty weak. Because Harper got a tiny plurality of the vote that means other parties have to let him wreak his will upon parliament, rather than attempting to exert some control over policy? I don't think so. Keep in mind that over 60% of Canadian voters chose somebody else.
If anything, that means it's incumbent on Harper to work with the opposition in order to keep his government in office. He may finally be realizing that--which is a good thing. I just think it's a little hypocritical for him to pretend that last fall was anything untoward when
a) he had made a similar (if informal) agreement with the Bloc when he was in opposition and
b) he shows willingness to work with "socialists and separatists" if it's to his own benefit.
Like CaptainCrunch said "a politician talking out of both sides of his mouth." Nothing unusual, really.
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Its a good post, however to me, the biggest difference is that with the Bloc/NDP/Liberal coalition government it was going to be a true coalition which ment that Bloc and NDP members were going to be given ganking cabinet positions. I think that this is what angered Canadians and myself was because nobody wants to see Jack Layton actually having signatury authority over policy, nobody wants to see a regional seperatist party actually dictating policy.
In this current case, its nowhere near a coaltion government, the Harper government as elected remains very much in control of policy and cabinet positions. What its hopefully showing those is that Harper is going to lossen his neck and take some of the good or possibly needed suggestions and use them while avoiding an election.
But the NDP is in a position of suggesting, not formating policy, and the Bloc is in a position of suggesting, not dictating policy from an overtly strong position within cabinet.
At the end of the day, the government is still going to fall if the NDP or Bloc put what the conservatives think is a lousy or too self interested condition in place..
The Liberal's could have had a seat in this to, but as much as we bitch about Harper not being willing to work with parliment, the Liberal's behaviour really hasn't been much better, especially in the case of the reduction of hours for EI eligibility which Ignatieff put into place because it sounded sexy to reduce it to a stupid 300 and some odd hours of work, if passed it would really cripple the budget and EI, and he knew that if he dug in his heels on it that the Conservatives would walk away from it and the Liberal's would come out as the injured party.
To me, the Liberal's are going to do everything they can do to topple the government right now because as this recession fades to the past, there just won't be a good enough issue to topple this government in 6 or 8 months. The Liberal's also want to trigger an election right now because they are losing power in the senate, and eventually the big buggaboo of Senate reform which the Liberal's really dislike is going to get to a senate vote.