Harper, Dion, Canadian Politics IS Actually Interesting Now.

Well, no, this is not a sex scandal,(Drat! no pics or innuendo!) not an issue of money wasted,(they do that all the time, definitely NOT news), none of that. Instead, our politics are now more interesting because our  Prime Minister made some stupid choices and lost the confidence of the House of Commons.  Some are calling this a constitutional crisis, I call it amusing.

First we have a Prime Minister who decided to take all the public funding from all parties and essentially deliberately try to cripple any oppositional resources. Dumb, really dumb! But, this seems to be the Harper way, to make decisions that are arrogant, and very often self-serving.

Then he backed down, and tried to say he was being conciliatory by asking the Opposition to give him ideas. This is leadership? Actually it is giving me opportunity to laugh, shake my head and just sigh.

The Opposition parties got together, drew up an agreement between two of them, with the Bloc Quebecois agreeing to back the two and refrain from using a veto on measures without discussion. Basically, they have more votes from the election in October than the minority party which has the Prime Minister.

Oh Oh! This means that they have enough seats, enough votes from Canadians to actually move into the governmental seats, and with Harper making dumb choices, they chose to use their votes in the House of Commons. I heard this and started to chuckle. Yep, seems the arrogance in politics is getting a smack upside the head, and none of the parties will even think of being quite so arrogant again, as far as I can see.

Oh, boy, then Harper makes another dumb move! He tries to use the Bloc Quebecois to make a case against the coalition. Dumb, really really dumb! If he had been at least consistent in his description of the Bloc as either sovreignist, or separatist, then maybe it would not appear so ludicrous, but he used separatist in his English speeches, sovereignist in French. Yep, the people of Quebec noticed! Imagine that! If I can notice it, I have no trouble believing they would. Geez.

So, our Governor General, who was overseas on official journeys, had to cut her trip short and return to Canada. Why? Well, this is her job. When there is a vote of “non-confidence”, the Prime Minister has to talk to the Governor General. Right now he wants to delay the vote of “non-confidence” until January, which means he has no plans to deal with governing or making any fiscal plans until then. If our economy is the “issue stupid” then we all have to sit and wait on him. This makes me shake my head. Where is the leadership? Apparently it went with our Governor General on a trip, but somehow got mislaid.

The coalition can ask the Governor General to make the government, if Harper cannot make his case to delay the vote until January. This is becoming a very sad parody of the Three Stooges.

Ironically, with Quebec going to a provincial election, the statements by Harper are going to light a good fire under those who want Quebec to become sovereign or even separate, given the disparaging remarks Harper made of the Bloc and it’s role in Canada. The Bloc Quebecois was, at one time, the official opposition. Remember that? Now, according to Harper, they are going to usurp the House of Commons to get the separation that a minority of Quebecois want. This is a threat now? Give me a break! The two main parties in this, the Liberals and New Democrats are the ones who will be the governing parties, and the role of the Bloc is as a support. Where on earth does the idea that including the Bloc in this become a threat to national unity? Good grief, here I go again, chuckling. Somehow the Bloc is honourable enough to be the official opposition, yet NOT honourable enough to back decisions from two parties? Someone needs to make up their minds.

Well done, dumb-dumb! Personally I know that the coalition could work, politically, and even be far more efficient and make some decisions for all Canadians. But, and here is the but that jumps. the two parties need to use intelligence, a larger view and certainly some skill to get the decisions through.

Harper sounded like a whiny little boy in his speech today, and definitely not a leader or someone with confidence.  “Aww, how could they do this to ME?” Umm hello? They did not do it to you, they don’t trust you to keep your word, do what is necessary for Canadians, and get your party to face the need for economic planning.

Then he tried the “they did not vote for them” trick. Wrong! Every member of parliament WAS and IS voted for, otherwise they would not be a member of parliament. We voted for our individual candidates, right? They were elected, right?  Until the votes were counted, there was no party in power, right?

Well, at least there is now fodder for blogs, and opinions all over. Amazing considering after the votes were tallied, the turnout was paltry. Hmmm, this makes me chuckle because there is more emotion now over a perfectly legal means to change the party in government than there was in the election itself. Oh the irony!

All of this while the world economy is taking a nose dive and a huge void is obvious in the leaderships of both the US and Canada. Weird timing, I have to admit.