Three strikes against Stephen
How can anyone still support this Harper government having seen what Harper is capable of? To accuse a member of the House of Commons of lying is considered unparliamentary; yet Stephane Dion did so without repercussion. That suggests that Conservatives know that Harper lied.
First Harper accused the Progressive Coalition of being photographed without a Canadian flag because a member, Gilles Duceppe, did not believe in the nation. Lo and behold, photographs and video of the event show not one, but two Canadian flags behind the three leaders. If that’s not a deliberate lie, I don’t know what is.
Then Harper said that Stephane Dion does not have the right to take power without an election. This too, is a lie, unless Harper really doesn’t understand how our parliamentary system works either. The Conservative government has not the confidence of the House; therefore the chance to govern can be granted to an alternative government having a majority.
As if that wasn’t enough, Harper then lambasted the coalition for catering to the seperatist Bloc, saying that his party would never consider such a thing. This too, is laughable, because on two seperate occasions, the Conservative Party made plans with the Bloc to form a coalition government, once with the intention of propelling Stockwell Day to the Prime Minister’s seat, and again in 2004. Finally, for Harper’s government to survive, it must gain support from the Bloc itself, because the NDP and Liberals won’t offer it. Another lie.
At any rate, Harper has blown his chances of a majority, having completely alienated Quebec. The anti-seperatist rhetoric has come across as very anti-Quebec, and the Conservative’s chances of gaining seats there should there be another election are virtually nil.
Our political system might be flawed in that it distorts the popular vote to create false majorities, but it retains the flexibility to accomodate a change of government without a $300 million election. This, of course, is something Harper will never admit, knowing that such an acknowledgement could keep power in the hands of the NDP and Liberals for years to come.
Canada’s political system is not designed to accomodate five major parties. It’s designed for the incessant revolution of power between two dominant parties. With the Bloc and NDP thrown into the mix, as well as a million people voting Green, Canada might see minority governments for quite some time.
We’d better learn to deal with it.
I am a little sick of the rhetoric coming from the conservative camp. They are behaving like individuals with not a shred of critical thinking ability, just bleating the same mantras over and over again. Sad.
They’re in denial, unwilling to acknowledge the legitimacy of this move.
–Daniel
cynicalmystic
December 3, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I suspect that Harper really does not understand the system he occupies, or, he wishes to pervert the understanding and “teach” it back to Canadians. He is a desperate figure whose poorly conceived plots have blown up in his face — he thinks like a majority, with a minority government, and thinks elections are so detested that he can do anything he wants and not have to face a vote of non-confidence.
He never considered the coalition option, and that has been his vulnerability.
Harper is also desperate to rapidly Americanize the political system. He uses the American mainstream political jargon about “special interests” when referring to something as fundamental as workers’ rights…as in the right not to be treated like slaves. He speaks as if the Prime Minister were directly elected, like the U.S. President. He plans scripts so that supporters can become like bots, with set talking points, basically FAQs on legs. He tapes private meetings, he tries to bribe politicians, and he essentially defers to the U.S. on all key issues.
I believe his government is a dangerous one, and Canadians who try to act smug and lecture the MPs about “acting like grown ups” (while the citizens mangle each other over parking spots), is really missing out on what is happening. If the dishonesty of this government is being revealed, it’s the ignorance and numbness of large parts of the population that are being revealed even moreso.
Thanks for posting by the way, I simply could not sit down and focus on producing something that was not a complete and utter diatribe.
1d4watchman
December 3, 2008 at 8:41 pm