Michael Ignatieff was right about one thing, the throne speech didn't contain poison pill. It was a bloody lethal injection put right through the heart of the Liberal Party.
Stephane Dion has been forced into voting for a throne speech that abandons Kyoto and extends the mission in Afghanistan. How much more obvious does the Prime Minister need to be, Iggy? Geez.
Harper has easily called Dion's bluff who now has to suck and blow at the same time. Dion is on a path to a spectacular crash and burn and he's going to take the entire Liberal Party with him.
Of course, there was really never any question of whether or not the Liberals would swallow such an obvious provocation. It was a "political imperative" that the Liberal party avoid an election (ht to Gerry Nicholls).
Just as Harper was once the "greatest asset" to both Chretien and Martin, Dion is now the "greatest asset" to Harper. Does Dion fully realize the squeeze play the PM has put on him?
And to top it all off, during an interview with CTV, Ralph Goodale drove home just how badly the liberals have misjudged by hanging their hats on Kyoto and Afghanistan. By claiming the Liberals are looking at the long term interests of Canada, he unwittingly admits that Kyoto and Afghanistan will not win them an election.
Dion says the same thing, too. He says that the "priority of Canadians" right now is to not have an election for the third time in three and a half years. Again, this drives home the point that the Liberals cannot win an election on Kyoto and Afghanistan alone. They need something else.
Which is why for the last couple of weeks, the Liberals have been talking about tax cuts.
I laughed when Goodale accused the opposition parties of playing 'silly' games by opposing the throne speech. In other words, Goodale and all his caucus colleagues are upset that the Bloc and NDP forced the Liberals into supporting it.
Note to Ralphy:
Stop sucking and blowing.
As a liberal you've spent the last two years almost solely on Kyoto. You elected the Kyoto loving Dion. You made such a fuss when you managed to pass a bill forcing the government into meeting its Kyoto commitments. Is it not your strong belief that meeting Kyoto commitments are in the long term interests of Canada? Has your leader not given the PM an ultimatum on Afghanistan? Then how can you support the government and maintain any kind of credibility at all? By putting yourselves into such a tight policy box, you've allowed yourselves to be outflanked and made to look ridiculous. Who's really being silly here?
3 comments:
Have you ever stopped to think that maybe governing should be about a little more than brinksmaship and tactics?
Maybe there should actually be some consideration given to providing a good policy framework for the country?
Just a thought...
Which is exactly what PM Harper has been doing. His Throne speech is all about policy.
The Liberals are the ones that have forced the brinkmanship on themselves. By continuously spouting threats and ultimatums they left themselves wide open. So Mr. Harper drove a Mac truck through their bluff. Mr. Dion folded like a cheap suit.
Have you ever considered that the problems the Liberals have are because the Tories and not them have good policies?
All Mr. harper did was expose that particular Liberal weakness!!!
My dear Anonymous,
You're absolutely correct! And it must be said that when in power, the Liberals did give "some" consideration to good policy framework, but inevitably returned to their tried and true strategy of creating more needs to supply.
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