This past weekend, as I was doing my best to ignore news and politics of any kind, I was asked if an election was in the cards.
Anyone who has read my blog knows I'm pretty good at calling it, so here are some facts to consider:
1. An election now, or in the foreseeable future, will accomplish nothing for the average voter, and the parliamentary landscape will change very little.
2. An election loss for Dion will bring about a leadership change in the Liberal party, resulting in a (possibly) more formidable opponent for the Prime Minister in 2009.
3. All political parties will be coy and perhaps bullish on the possibility of an election because it will bring in more contribution money. For obvious reasons the Conservatives will raise more cash than the other parties combined.
4. Dion's established pattern is to bring us to the brink of election then back down.
5. Most Liberals want Dion out.
6. The Prime Minister wants Dion to remain the leader of the Liberal Party for as long as possible.
These are the facts.
And they are undisputed...
1 comment:
The legislation setting out fixed election dates was introduced by Mr. Harper with the hope (now long gone) that by providing certainty in when Canadians went to the polls there would be, at least, a modicum of co-operation between the parties.
Instead, the opposition...particularly the Liberals and to a slightly lesser extent the NDP...have turned the last session of parliament into a shameful finger-pointing circus. They have ignored the legitimate functions of parliamentary committees and used them as kangaroo courts in an attempt to dig up any kind of unfounded and scurrilous dirt to throw at the government. To date they have wasted time, spent huge sums of money, and produced nothing in the way of factual evidence to corroborate their claims.
They have passed motions such as the one that said the government had to meet the Kyoto targets knowing full well this was not possible. These motions were aimed only at embarrassing the Conservatives, not offering any meaningful alternatives to the government's policies.
They have constantly threatened to bring the government down even though they were also party to the passing of the fixed date election date legislation. They have taken what was intended to be serious attempt to halt the practice of calling elections on a whim and turned it into a vehicle for personal aggrandizement. Witness Mr. Dion thumping his chicken chest and tell all within earshot that he, and he alone, would decide when an election would be called.
Now, in a last ditch effort by the PM to find a way to make this legislation relevent for all parties, the opposition refuses to even return phone calls.
Who do you think has pushed this situation to the ridiculous impasse that now faces the government?
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