Doin' The Coalition Rant

[dramaqueen_23]

The reaction in the face of a looming coalition government has put me on the rant path.

Rant The First Over the past several days, I've heard and seen the words "undemocratic", "unconstitutional" and "coup" bandied about with vigor. NO, IT ISN'T! People aren't obligated to like the idea of a coalition. And if I actually liked our prime minister

Comments

[pauliatchy]

Something can be legal. It can be constitutional. It can be a part of the system that we've got. All of those things can and may be true. In fact I think that they are. That doesn't make it a good idea at this time.

I know that we vote for our local representative, but that doesn't mean that voters aren't also keeping the guy at the top in their mind while they cast it. The fact is that they should be. That's the guy that represents us to the rest of the world. It may not be the way the system is put out there, but reality dictates that we are also choosing our leader (at least the 53% of us that take our responsibility seriously are).

When the polls speak, it's the job of those MPs to make the system work. Not to play little power games that cost tremendous amounts of money and waste time that needs not to be wasted.

Dion is the biggest reason that the Liberals lost by the widest margin in years, and the coalition wants to put him up as PM?!? Weren't they planning on turfing him out a few weeks ago?

See, I'd consider myself a centrist, except that's a game of averages. I'm far left on the social side, but more to the right on the fiscal side. It makes voting a huge internal debate for me. I firmly believe that we need to swing it back and forth every few years. One party spends money on the social programs, and then the other comes in and fills up the piggy bank so that the cycle can begin anew. With this, that's not what we're getting, and it's the worst possible time to do it. With a Conservative minority we get the more fiscally responsible agenda (by a slim margin, but better than what the other guys had to offer), and a strong opposition to stop him from doing anything crazy. To me, this was the best possible situation in this climate. To do this, well, I just don't see the good. I guess they're going to do what they're going to do.

I'm with you on all of the points, especially the one about Dion. I guess I'd have been happier if this had come up after he'd been replaced.

Blah... sorry to get all ranty in your comments... it's been brewing a couple of days... ;)

[rpriske]

Socially left and fiscally right sounds like this coalition to a T.

Creating the coalition took guts. It could make the public turn on them. However, how could ANYONE in good conscience not try to stop the crap that Harper put in his mini-budget?

Limiting the right to sue for PAY EQUITY?
Refusing the rights of public servants to freely negotiate their contracts?
Cut party funding to guarantee that only the rich and big business (redundancy there) get a say?

And, of course, the arts funding cuts, but as important as that is to me, I recognize that the prior three points are a LOT bigger.

Limiting the right to sue for PAY EQUITY?

[starfishchick]

I know, right?

WTF was he thinking, and who in his party thought it was a good idea?