Harper apparently wants election

[elevennevele]

Can't you guys see what Harper is doing? He's daring the opposition to block it, if they don't he wins, if they do, he still wins because the opposition forced an early election. Plus, he's bringing to Parliament a legislation he ran on his pre-election platform. And, the opposition will look bad for blocking money to the people. At least that's the way I would see it.

I find this statement of yours very disturbing because I agree with your analysis. I wonder what the numbers are for potential recipiants, how much of the electorate do they represent, and what wage bracket are they in.

I'm in agreement too. Harper is playing a really crafty game with this country.

I’m actually really critical of the Liberals right now for leaving themselves vulnerable as different members try to position themselves for the leadership of the party. In doing so they are losing precious time because Harper is capitalizing on the situation. The more time they squander, the harder it will be to redress issues they need to be sorely critical towards with a defining face to their party.

The NDP right now seems way too interested in votes to fight against the Conservatives. This after seeing the way they fought against the Liberals. Where is the same passion for their values, or was it all just a political show and a way to steal votes from the Liberal voting base?

I have to shake my head at this. For instance they fought against the Liberals for a child care package that they wanted, and now they are conceding to the Conservatives for much much less.

That is so weak.

Without knowing who is going to lead the Liberals, I can’t really say how I feel about the party, but when it comes to policy I don’t see the alternatives anywhere else.

The NDP would have been a much stronger party if they had defined themselves through a Liberal minority than a Harper minority. Also, if they could make their economic policies more progressive and realistic for the country and our position in the world markets, then maybe they could be more than just the ‘third party’ to the left.

 

[FiveParadox]

NDP a Disappointment

I would agree with your assessment of the situation, elevennevele¹; I was dismayed to hear that the New Democratic Party of Canada had, more or less, conceded the issue of the child care agenda to the current Government of Canada (given minor changes). In terms of elections, I thought that the New Democrats had conducted a campaign based, in part, on the premise that the programs suggested by the previous Government of Canada should have been implemented.

:!: Revision : (1) Corrected a formatting error.

 

[Jay]

I find it odd that the Liberals didn't do what they said they were going to do since 1993, and that was set up a national day care program.

Although I don't agree with any of their plans, I still think it goes to show the games the Liberals were playing and now that the Conservatives are going to do what they promised (and promised only a few months ago) what can Liberals say...they didn't have time to fulfill their mandate or something? And now they want to get in the way? Why?

 

[FiveParadox]

Just because the previous Government of Canada came up as an utter failure in terms of child care (although they do, in my opinion, deserve credit in relation to the agreements reached with the provinces) doesn't mean that they don't have a right to oppose the position of the current Government of Canada.

 

[Jay]

They had a right to do something about it for 12 years and they didn't....now their going to champion this thing because they have a problem with Harper doing what he said he was going to do.

The Liberals get voted in three times and don't do anything until the bitter end and their supporters come rushing out to shit on Harper when Harper wins an election with day care funding on the immediate agenda....you guys are crazy.

 

[FiveParadox]

Um ... perhaps you didn't read a word of what I wrote.

I conceded, Jay, that the previous Government of Canada had messed up, in terms of child care. However (and this is the point I am attempting to make), the current Government of Canada (as in the Conservative Party of Canada) needs the support of other parties to pass their agenda in the House of Commons — and whether or not those parties succeeded to act on their promises in previous Parliaments of Canada, the Government doesn't have a mandate to impose whatever it wishes without the consent and consideration of the Commons.

 

[Lotuslander]

Five paradox wrote:

Mr. Harper doesn't have a majority of the seats in the House of Commons. For the Prime Minister to attempt to govern as if he has three hundred eight Conservative seats in the House is arrogant, and he would be wise to consider a more humble approach to a minority situation. I would have hoped that Mr. Harper would have learned the lessons forced upon the previous Government.

harper may not have all the seats but he has all the cards! Politics is a blood sport and right now the opposition, all the parties, are weak and in no form to be at the hustings.

 

[Canucklehead]

RE: Harper apparently wan

Is it not possible, if only remotely, that the NDP and Liberals could form a coalition government with 'informal' support from the Bloc if the budget is voted down?

It's not that bad a strategy since neither the Liberals nor NDP are in a position to win an election on their own, nor are Canadians particularly interested in yet another election so soon but between the two they should be able to scrape together a decent cabinet. It would be something like a functional version of the last parliament, or the last few months anyway. Few Canadians, according to the polls, had too much of a problem with the progress made once the Liberals and NDP worked together.

The Liberals can say they showed the country they still have a leftist side in them, and the NDP & Bloc can say they shaped/passed legislation and take due credit for making the quasi-big leagues. Lest we forget Stevie and his conservatives... they can sit on the benches tapping furiously on their blackberries to their republican mentors asking "WTF just happened?" Ah to dream

 

[Acudor]

RE: Harper apparently wan

Harper's just making noise ... like the Liberals are going to try and bring down the gov't when they won't even have themselves a leader until the fall. Besides, why would any party try to bring down a gov't that's just trying to keep one of it's promises from the campaign that got them elected? It's hard to get mad at a political party that's standing by what it said.

Harper will fall but at a time agreed upon by the 3 opposition parties IN ADVANCE and this is not IT. It'll probably be on some legislation designed to bring us more 'under the U.S. wing'. The people aren't going to like that and, not only will the legislation be defeated but the Conservatives will lose most of their seats outside Alberta in the election that follows.