Slim MacSquinty

Listening to Dion's speech was just a continuation of the election campaign. He makes lots of promises that are very vague with little or no substance and he essentially admits that they are prepared to overturn the government despite having no plan beyond platitudes to do anything different, just more meetings with unknown experts. ALthough we now know that three of four legitimate partisan experts have already declined participation. Good acting no substance. Really interesting times, scary, internationally embarassing, probably harming the economy but interesting.

Listening to Duceppe, he lays it all out, it seems clear that the opposition got together and decided that they ideolically opposed the Tories and therefore saw they had the ability to reject the results of the election defeat them. He said little about stimulating the economy, he spoke most about what he got for Quebec. He also described what the concessions that he was able to wrangle out of the coalition, which is essentially unravel most of what has been done in parliment in the last two terms. Specifically he got some opt out of federal programs, he got money for forestry, he got concessions on pensions and he had at least four other things which he mentioned so fast I missed. The fact that all leaders seemed to need to speak, therefore I question the unity of the coalition and the ability to corral the egos. furthermore the fact that Duceppe came out tonight seems to indicate to me that in fact he is a part of the coalition and the fact of the numbers require his party further prove that. I'm sure that, like the recording said, this scheme was brewed up long ago and that the confidence crisis was inevitable no matter what Harper did or does, and in retrospect I am suprised the throne speech passed.

64% do not want Dion About the same are not comfortable with BQ in the mix. Clearly lots more to this poll as the number don't exactly add up, must have been plenty of I don't knows as totals on the first two questions are about 70%. Another interesting point is that apparently Dion is already handing out senate appointments.

There are others whose contracts are coming up. That may be true, though I expect we'll all have to pay some kind of price, I know at work today we got the belt tightening lecture from the heavy hitters, and I work in an industry that is relatively stable even during bad times. We're in negotiations and even our union is not talking too tough.

And the internet does tend to attract the most stable and courteous people, he he.

They didn't advocate replacing unionized workers, they said they would prevent them from striking during bad economic times, incidently the public sector unions have contract through to near the end of the term that they proposed. It appears you've got your rhetoric wrong.

CityTV in Toronto did a similar one with similar results about 60 to 40 against the coalition. And that's in squishy pink left Toronto.

I've been googling the news for polling figures to see how Canadians feel about the coalition, but I can't find any. Are you making a presumption or do you have actual knowledge of what you say bolded above? They interviewed a couple of polsters on the CBC tonight despite there being no official polls, the concensus appeared to be in favour of the Tories. Personally, at work today people who I would deem generally apathetic or mildly left were bewildered and felt the election decided the government not deals behind the scenes. Most folks don't take a lot of interest in politics and probably have no great knowledge or interest in the rules, I sense they think its manipulating the rules to get power and don't like it, they want to think the world is fair, this doesn't strike them as fair.

The words liberal or socialist causes right wing people to spit I think you prove my point, I somewhat agree that your point of view certainly colours your opinion, however Harper gets a much bigger negative response than conservative (unless of course you use the two words together).

People equally 'hate' Layton and Dion I disagree, the right may at times hate what they do but do not hate the individuals, there is some hatred of the Liberal party based on the way they have ruled with impunity and their sense of entitlement. There are many on the left however who can barely contain their anger at the mention of his name.

You know if I was Harper, I would give them my head like they ask for, step down as leader, go back to Calgary to a heroes welcome, take a job in the oil patch for double my present salary and watch the whole friggin thing burn. Why put up with a bashing from a couple of egg headed pipsqueeks like Dion and Layton, and all their mindless cronies. Not since Trudeau has a federal leader been so reviled by a segment of the people, however unlike Trudeau what Harper takes is unjustified and is simply the fabrication of timid theocrats of the left. THe Harperless Tories would likely win a majority in the next election simply based on the disgust level of the majority of the population.

It is about confidence. Harper can't help himself from acting against the Opposition first and foremost over his attacks on the those oppose him. Personal animosity is hardly a reason to throw the country into turmoil unless you're a self center sore loser I suppose. I think the word confidence is is being misused, confidence of the house of commons is not like having confidence your adult diaper will not leak while your having a dinner party, its about the ability to use good judgement to run the country, thus far, given the fact that only a six weeks ago the election gave them a mandate to do just that, the coalition has done a pretty poor job of proving they have anything to offer better than the Tories.

I see it this way, the Tories were elected and the ecomomy changed, the stock market fell apart and they needed to change their approach, this they did. They also took the opportuntiy to kick the Liberals and the BQ, probably a tactical error. However, they were just elected by the people with a strengthened mandate, in fact a near majority, the opposition historically weak would have seemed unlikely to pull this stunt, in fact I imagine that Harper never dreamed an alliance between the Liberals and BQ could be achieved, there is personal bad blood between Dion and Duceppe. I have said all along that if they wished to remove the federal political subsidy they should have phased it in over several elections as this would have seemed fair while achieving a good goal of taking the trough from the party noses. I suspect the opposition would have complained but backed down knowing they could re-instate it if elected in the next two elections. Although I do not agree with the Torie approach neither can I lay all the blame at their feet, cooperation works both ways and from the very outset neither the NDP or the Liberals have offered an olive branch. In fact the Liberals especially Dion didn't really acknowledge that the Tories won a mandate, Dion instead never accepted defeat, he accepted that he failed to get his message across to Canadians because of the Tory attack ads and in so doing implied that Canadians made a mistake. Perhaps this explains this very arrrogant, self serving play for power.

To those Harper haters so eager to see a coalition, think about this: What is the platform you voted for? Is it going to be reflected in this coalition? What is the platform of this coalition? Apart from "we hate Harper" there isn't one. If you wish to take them at their word (which I do not) then they say there is no stimulus package therefore they have no confidence in the government. Does this coalition have a stimulus package that is specific enough to target any economic problem that you can name? Can you or the coalition name a specific sector of the economy, or a specific region of the country, tell me what specifically is wrong and how your specific amount of government money will target and resolve that problem. I suspect a symphony of NO's for answers. I have only heard unspecific, non-costed and unverified sound bites, that does not a plan make, sorry. The separatist are laughing, they already have special status, as the agreement refers to Canadians and Quebecers, not Ontarioans, BC'ers, Albertans etc. Much of the Country will be unrepresented in this coalition. Although technically legal this is unprecedented and here is why, typcially coalitions (even provincial ones) have either formed before the election, or if after the election they were very much dominated by one party, like in Ontario under the Peterson/ Rae deal it was a Liberal government using a small amount of support from the NDP, therefore in general the electorate knew what they had voted for and with a few exceptions knew what they were in for. This is not the case this coalition is "an on the fly anti-government rag tag bunch of losers. If any of them actual cared about the country and the voters, they would acknowledge that Harper backed down, they got what they wanted and stand down. They have proved their point and in the interest of stability they would allow the Tories to rule for perhaps a year. Interestingly enough if Dion cared about the Liberal party he would not do this, he is most certainly alienating the old guard right wing of the party (I would say a large number), undermining the opportuntiy to have a leadership race, blowing the chance to re-organize and strengthen their finances. This is a serious blow to the Liberals.

My suspicion is that there are many members of the Liberal party who's political ideology lay well to the right of Dion/ Rae and the current incarnation of the party, they predominately sat on their hands last election waiting for the re-birth. Hence money has not flowed into the party, they will not be happy today as the re-tooling of the party will be put off by this drama. I suspect the internal consequences in the party could be catastrophic. In federal politics in this country and UK this is unprecedented, always the moral authority to govern is sought this shows little respect for our democratic tradition.

1985 to 1987 is when the wheel began to come off the Ontario bus, red tory Bill Davis had Ontario well to the left and the coalition you speak of moved even further in that direction. Leading to the election of Bob Rae and well we all know how that went.

The urbanites in Toronto and Montreal overwhelmingly voted Liberal, and are generally the haters of Harper, therefore one might assume today, they are smug.

Its a fact not an accusation

No, the GG serves at the pleasure of the Queen. I agree sort of, she is the Queen's representative in Canada, she is picked by the sitting PM for a term or 5 years (I think) and rubber stamped by the Queen. No GG has ever been ousted and that would be a constitutional crisis as the Queen could technically say no.

They're getting a taste of the good 'ol Eastern power base.Looks like the Reformers have to back to the drawing board.The rumour I've heared is that Captain Sweatervest is toast and a logical successor might be Jean Charest!!!Can we say a new split on the right in this country!!!!!! That's just stupid, western alienation is real, they have considerable seats in the house of commons, Newfoundland is making silly non concilliatiory noises and and Quebec voted overwhelmingly for the BQ again. Idiots like you are going to be sitting alone in the dark with nothing but your shitty attitude. Taking the BQ out of the picture, the conservatives would have had a majority with 143 of the remaining 259 seats, this coalition by ignoring the will of the people is surely trouble for those who play. Sure there is probably alot of smug urbanites in Toronto and Montreal who are gleeful, but I suspect they may be feeling pretty isolated after the next election, not to mention pretty stupid if the economic consequences take a hit because of this political instability.

The governement sets the agenda, the economic update comes first, if they choose.

The reason the Conservative are going down is they aren't doing nothing to help our economy and I say they are NOT responsible when it comes to handling our taxes dollars. Patently false, even the liberal government of Ontario was behind them and vocalized support for the fiscal update, if you bother to do any reading beyond the toronto star you'd know that much of the economic experts had at worst mixed reviews if not support for the statement. That hardly represents resounding disagreement. If you actually believe any of these guys, especially the BQ, are thinking about the interests of this country you are an utter fool. This is exclusively about money for the parties, the Liberals are bankrupt, the BQ gets 90% or more or their funds from public financing and the NDP gets nearly no money from the unions anymore. Pure self interest nothing more.

The coalition will go to the polls in 2011. And if you found 3 coalitions in the UK, you have found Precedent. I knew there was no problem finding examples of coalitions, however there is no example of one going to the GG to support it without a commitment to go to the polls in order to have the moral authority, the GG should be mindful that there is no example to support 2-1/2 years of unelected government such as this. I should think that 6 months would be about the maximum.

I have searched, and connot find a precident for this action even in the history of British Parliment, there have been three coalitions in the last hundred years but never like this and generally they have, by design, gone to the polls soon after forming the coalition knowing they needed to have the support of the people to have the moral authority to run the government. In two cases, as in the only Canadian example, the government caucus was split and the government had to go outside their own ranks for support to pass legislation, In every case they took the coalition to the polls. Perhaps the GG does have to ask if they can form a coalition to win confidence of the house, however she may also have the authority to limit their term forcing them to get an elected mandate for the coalition, certainly precident would say they do. Then the Liberals and the NDP would have to campaign as a coalition with a common platform. Who ever said it was the end of the Liberals may in fact have been right.

The BQ isn't included in the coalition, they are just more accepting of its ability to deliver stimulus to the economy. A government is more than just a stimulus package, do you expect the BQ is going to support this just based on it s good intentions for the country they wish to destroy? How naive is that. They will expect to carry weight (or more accurately accept spoils) in proportion to the seats they posses. This is not what the PEOPLE voted for don't you get it!