Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
But you have to admit that Ignatieff has trapped himself. If he votes for the bill, he's a giant soft jelly like substance with no convinction.
If he votes against a bill that will save Canadian taxpayers money and has no contraversial additions, he's power hungry and putting his own interests in front of that of regular Canadians.
He should have kept his mouth shut and waited for something that the Liberal's really couldn't live with.
As it stands he was hoping for the NDP and Bloc to declare that they were voting against the bill so that he could deflect some of the rage that Ordinary Canadians would feel about not only going to the polls, but a very good bill getting squashed.
He allowed himself to get cornered and the Bloc and the NDP gleefully slid the knife between his ribs.
|
I wouldn't say that. I think that he played this pretty well.
Ignatieff voting against this would not only be bad optics (since he was wanting EI changes), but it would also be pointless, as it would pass anyway. He acknowledged the latter point and said that since it is going to pass regardless of what he was going to do, he would make sure that it passes as soon as possible so that the NDP wouldn't have an excuse to prop up the Conservatives any longer.
The NDP, who really don't want an election, are scrambling and saying now that they have to look at the bill again. They are in a hard spot, since if this bill passes right away, they no longer have an excuse to prop up the Conservatives. They are going to want to delay this bill for as long as they can, but they can't afford to be percieved to be doing this. They are going to be in a tough spot to come out of this unscathed.
The Conservatives probably want an election as well, since they are sitting as well in the polls as they have for a long time. Now, however, they will have to worry about some of the NDP support from the last election going over to the Liberals. They have also will have lost a talking point of the Liberals voting against helping the unemployed. I believe that the next chance for the government to fall is when the Liberals will bring a non-confidence motion against the government sometime in October. If the government falls then, it will be a lost opportunity for the Conservatives to make the Liberals look bad by voting against something that they should support. However, I don't know if the Renevation Rebate is included in this bill. If it isn't, the Conservatives could try to make the Liberals bring them down by introducing it as a bill, but again the NDP and the Bloq would likely support it.
By saying that he would vote down the government at the earliest opportunity, Ignatieff has beaten Layton and Duceppe to the punch and forced the NDP and BQ to be the ones who keep the Conservatives in power. I think that the key for Ignatieff in the next election is not stealing from the Conservative vote, but the NDP and BQ vote.