(shallowly) Inside Stephen Harper is a radical American Repulican dying to burst out...

[inachan]

... like an alien!!!!

A few hours ago, after first reading this article, I was very very VERY pissed off!!! The looming idea of the possibility of having yet another (unecessary) fall election was irritating enough. But then starts the pre-event mudslinging:

Click here to read the stupidity of Canadian politics...

Being the hot-blooded Liberal that

Comments

[inachan]

I used to like Layton, but his enthusiasm to bring down the Harper Government instead of working hard to ensure that what really the people wants is what put on the table (mind you both Harper and Ignatief are guilty of this too) jaded my admiration for the socialists.

Guh! The fact that Harper also uses Republican tactics to paint "socialicm" as evil, when our society pretty much thrived on some of its principles (particularly healthcare and education... including secondary education) and pretty much cushioned the impact of the economic crisis (YAY for government regulated banks!) is a total turn off. Harper was one of the the MPs during Chretien's time who criticised the Liberal government for not participating in the US led invasion of Iraq. The Bloc even got him to admit in one of the public debates that if the Conservatives was in power at that time, Canada would be in Iraq today.

I find it completely ironic, that of all the parties in parliament... the Bloc Quebecois... the party whose main objective is to destroy Canada as we know it and ensure the separation and sovereignity of Quebec (Ha! How's that for ultimate face of stupidity democracy ? I never really understood the reasoning behind why they allowed to have a party in power in parliament that's essentially anti-Canadian)... is the only party that's smelling like flowers right now. They don't really play a significant role outside Quebec. Essentially, they just vote against the current party in power or vote support for the party that would benefit Quebec.

I don't really like the Bloc Quebecois, but I love Gilles Duceppe for being the only leader in parliament to force Harper to show his two-faced self.

[pomortsy]

I can understand your feelings; if Americans had to vote as often as Canadians, there'd be rioting in the streets. On the other hand, I think it would benefit our horribly out-of-whack two party system. Whenever someone talks about how 'left-wing' or 'socialist' an American-style Democrat is I die a little inside. I was one of the only people I know who didn't expect Obama to change anything. There are plenty of things that his election has done for us; improving the image of our country slightly is always a bonus, and if he gets the public health care passed I'll officially be impressed: but I doubt that actually passing it would be in his interest. :/ We have a saying in Alaska 'the more a politican fusses about doing something, the less they want it done.' It's actually one of those plucky folk sayings that NEVER EVER SEEMS APPROPRIATE but it seems apropos now. And also, I can see Harper admitting that he'd be in Iraq if he'd had the option... I remember a sketch where he had some sort of mind-control chip from Washington in the back of his skull. It was scary-accurate.

That brings me nicely to Gilles Duceppe. I was in Montreal aeons ago, and actually saw him speak; I didn't really know what was being said (or who he was), but the thing that stuck in my mind was that he never seemed to blink, which was incredibly scary but kind of cool. I have no idea if he still does this. Later, I actually got a chance to read some of his stuff in English, and it seems pretty honest and good. Well, all except the tearing Quebec from Canada bit, which is just crazy, and wouldn't even benefit Quebec, it's distinct culture, or ostensibly the stuff that the Bloc is trying to preserve, it least in my opinion; it's part of Canada too!

In short, it's time to vote Rhino! :D
Or more seriously a strong regional candidate/not worry too much about voting. Politics is a strange thing.

[inachan]

Oh the irony of ironies...

It would seem that the Harper Government is going to survive after all... with help from the party they disdainfully brand as "the socialists".

I suppose after loosing the Liberal support, the Conservatives didn't have a choice but give in to what the NDP wants. Idiots. If they were going to do that in the first place, they should have done it sooner.

Well, both our and your form of government systems have upsides and downsides. The best thing about our system is that we don't have to endure "eight years of Bush" like you guys did. Like what happened only a month after the last election... If parliament looses confidence in the party in power, they can go to the Governor General (who is the representative of the Queen of England in Canada) and in turn give the opposition a chance to suggest what to do next. Back then, because it was only a month after the last election, they had two options:

1. Have (yet) another Election
2. The opposition forms a coalition with the other parties (which was essentially 64% of the vote of the entire population).

IMHO, the coalition would have done awesome things! I personally think its ultimate democracy because you have all the parties working closely together... NEEDING to work closely together... in order for the coalition to survive.

But the Conservatives took advantage of the fact that (unfortunately) a lot of Canadians don't know how our own parliament works. They did a magnificent spin doctor propaganda (which worked really well since the US elections was fresh in everyone's minds) that the coalition is "treason" and that Harper was the rightful elected Prime Minister...

Which is a LIE!!! We don't vote for the Prime Minister. We vote for the Members of Parliament to represent our district. The Party that goes on power is the one that has the most number of Members of Parliament. Harper is only Prime Minister because he's the leader of the Progressive Conservative Party. He could easily lose his job if his party decides that they don't want him as their leader anymore.

But Harper is very smart... he actually keeps his members on a tight leash in his cabinet. Whoever is known to publicly disagree with him will find their position in his political heirarchy greatly compromised (or at least reassigned to a position that doesn't garner as much public attention). If that's not a form of facism, I don't know what is.

Essentially, our government is designed to ensure that every district has a voice and in a minority government (which I personally think is the best case scenario) forces each party to work with each other so at least everyone gets what they want in a compromise.

The biggest flaw, unfortunately, is that if the parties each have their own agenda and refuse to compromise (as Harper's government has stubbornly done time and time again and only yeilds with the threat of loosing vote of confidence from the other parties), then nothing ever gets done.

[pomortsy]

OUCH.

No matter how slick his evil republicanism, or how many deals he cuts, this just seems like the end of the line. This pretty much looks like when the elections do roll around, the Grits'll take the lions share, and NDP and the Bloc'll pick up the scraps. I just can't see anyone taking the Conservatives too seriously after this. Maybe some sound advice to them would have been to look before they leap?

What's holding them up now, anyhow? I mean, the NDP doesn't actually have that many seats from what I gather; is it possible for them to withdraw support if they feel Harper stops giving them what they want? I mean, I guess so, reading your post; although they'd probably just go 'durr, election time again'.

Coalitions are *awesome*! I am a firm believer in agreeing to rationally disagree; I'm a crazy radical left-winger, my neighbor is a libertarian plumber, and the guy two doors over is a waffling Democrat/Republican. We manage to solve local political problems all the time!... Er, not that we then succeed in getting any good ideas onto the stage of power, but still! Coalitions make things better!... And it keeps someone from getting too much power, which is what has stagnated American democracy. I mean, seriously; there are only two parties (Well, there are more technically, but the guy I voted for, Brian Moore? Yeah, got all of 18,000 votes, heh!), and we don't have a parliamentary system, so coalitions of any type are impossible, and the parties tend to conglomerate into one mass.

The regional elections are happening here, and no one even cares. Yet everyone in town puts up signs in their yard advocating one candidate or another and a lot of people don't even remember the name of the person they're supporting. It's totally surreal. Speaking of which, isn't calling a party 'Progressive Conservative' kind of like naming a party 'the Moderate Totalitarians' or 'The LeftRite party?

From your description, Harper sounds a lot like Reagan. Canny, a good speaker, and very very good at shuffling people out that he didn't like. This also sounds like it'd make him more than bearable if the whole minority government worked out. Unfortunately... Well, even from west of the border, things look shaky. I've heard how he's pretty much thumbed his nose at the Liberal's time and time again only to renege on crap when they've supported him. And now the obvious coup de'grace is the NDP giving him a plank to stand on - which makes sense given that he probably broke his while trying to campaign, heh! ;)

[inachan]

UGH! But unfortunately, not a lot of people see him that way! In the last election, the Liberals had the unfortunate position of having an extremely intelligent but just as extremely uncharismatic leader. The Conservatives negative ad tactics in painting him as this scared little bunny who will get eaten by lions in the time of crisis and there's his unintelligible rhetoric because of his thick French accent coupled by his hearing disabilities... (which had nothing really to do with his past contributions in politics) worked very well and the Liberals lost seats... mostly to the NDP. HA! Right tactics, wrong results! Harper was confident he was going to get a majority government back then... only to have his tactics backfire and only earned 3 seats more with a good chunk going to the NDP. It was pretty hilarious! $300 M for 3 seats! He would have gotten a better bargain from Ikea! ^_^.

The conspiracy theorist in me sometimes think that this whole deal is a calculated plan to save face for all the parties. I mean, the truth is... NOBODY wants an election. If we had an election now, I very much doubt that a lot of people will even bother going to the polls. Last years election was the lowest turnout in Canadian History. I don't remember the exact numbers, but it's only close to 50% turnout... if you think about it, it probably doesn't even count.

The Grits has been propping the Tories for 2 votes of confidence now and not really getting what they want, so in principal they have to start showing that they are after all the official opposition.

As much as a lot of people don't like Iggy, he is 100% more charismatic than Stephan Dione. So the likelihood of the NDP keeping the seats they gained from the last election is not very good if they vote against the Tories and force an election now. And since Harper decided to give in to what they wanted (which is ironically what the Grits wanted too... bastard... Harper just didn't want to be seen as always giving in to the Liberals... his current government has already been accused by dissidents in his party as "covertly Red")

The Bloc doesn't really have anything to lose. Though there is a provincial election happening in Quebec right now. The Quebec Liberals are in power, but with all the crap that's happened to them and they caused in their past term... the likelihood of the Parti Quebecois (Provincial counterpart of the Bloc) taking power is very good. And eventhough the Federal and Provincial parties distance themselves from each other... the actions of one and the other seem to influence voters' opinions anyway. Since no one wants a Federal AND and Provincial election in Quebec at the same time and the don't really find anything wrong in Harper's revisions in his new Employment Insurance policies (which was the main reason why the Liberals walked out, they couldn't agree on it)... the Bloc opted to vote for it.

Of course, regardless of all the bad ass things that Harper has done to his own party and to the Liberals... he hasn't actually done anything bad that people would start rushing to the other parties if elections happened. He's not going to have a majority government, but he will still win his minority, that's for sure. He's no Brian Mulroney or Pierre Trudeau. Stephen is a mediocre PM at best. Not a shining star, but not a rotting apple either (at least not in the outside)... and at these uncertain times, a mediocre but stable leader seems to be good enough for the majority of the Canadian public.

It's like the leaders of all the parties got together in a hockey halftime and decided that this was the gameplay... everything gets what they want without looking like they're giving/getting what they want on purpose. It's amusing and annoying at the same time...

GUH! Politicians... but I suppose without their antics, we won't have Rick Mercer gems!

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