Novocastrian

He manages. The conservatives are wasting their time elsewhere as well.

montreal mike

answer is:

1. yes but it failed
2. yes, I suspect so
3. Yes, quite good in fact
4. Yes, as are the Liberals

montreal mike

agreed

montreal mike

What you heard is nonsense. it shows ignorance and prejudice.

Novocastrian

I'm beginning to like you more, mike.

newshoney

And this is why this farce is about to happen. Perhaps it's a lesson to Canadian voters that they must actually turn out and vote. What happens when you submit passively? Well look at Zimbabwe.

Whether or not individuals like or dislike the French, are or aren't against the Quebecois separatists, the truth is still that an unpopular (and only temporarily-united) bunch of misfits is about to take advantage of a soft process to capture power. Shall we open a book now on how long before our three musketeers are at each other's throats?

Meanwhile the rest of the world will snigger behind their hands at the thought that a barely-intelligible (in either language) loser, despised by his own party, who has to stand aside anyhow in May, is supposed to stand as an equal on the world stage to an Obama or Putin.

Do we laugh with them, or weep?

dbd33

I think that's rather melodramatic. The position of Prime Minister of Canada is more comparable to that of Governor of Alaska or President of Belgium than it is to President of a superpower. The rest of the world isn't likely to notice.

I don't think we should get terribly excited, Canadian governments come and go without having any great impact upon us.

I think the worst thing for the country would be a government that had a set of policies and which passed legislation in futherance of those policies. I think that such actions are inevitably harmful and so prefer weak minority governments, dithering unstable coalitions, Senators who call in from resorts for their stipend, anything that minimizes the harm the government can do. Thus I'd like to see Harper drag things out until the New Year then call an election resulting in a minority or coalition; that would buy us two or three months of continued legislative inactivity, two or three months of Ottawa not buggering up the lives of the citizenry.

jimf

By the looks of it a provincial election has just been called in Quebec. Wasn't the last Quebec election in 2007. Canadian politicians must really like elections.

Oakvillian

the Quebec provincial election was called before Ottawa's issues came to a head (i.e. before Harper and Flaherty put forward their not-a-plan for financial recovery). In a similar vein to Harper's last administration, Jean Charest leads a minority government in Quebec and reckoned by calling a new election he stood a chance of gaining a functional majority in the Assemblée Nationale. That's pretty much what Harper did a few months ago - it didn't work for him and most commentary that I've heard thinks it is unlikely to work for Charest either.

On the crisis in Federal government, I can't get over the arrogance and hypocrisy of some Conservative politicians in trying to rubbish the opposition coalition. Harper himself entered an accord (in much the same way that the Lib/NDP coalition has proposed) with the Bloc in order to bring down Paul Martin's minority government in 2006, so forcing the election that brought him to power. And how they can possibly argue that the Lib/NDP coalition is somehow "undemocratic" while at the same time suggesting the best course of action is to prorogue Parliament for a couple of months simply beggars belief.

However, to echo dbd's point (why do I keep agreeing with him? Should I be worried?) I heard on last night's news that the US ambassador in Ottawa has not only not briefed the US administration on the situation but has no plans to bring it up at his forthcoming handover meeting in Washington. That's a fair indication of how little importance the rest of the world assigns to Canada's federal government.

Novocastrian

2004. See "other" thread.

Agreed. But also an indication of the irrelevance of the Bush administration.

Spongebob

Why the urgent need now. Wait for the budget in January. The economy is not going to crash in one month. Its a power grab, plain and simple, and its the only way that Dion can govern as prime minister with Layton in cabinet.

All hail Larry, Curly and Mo.

Rich_007

I like him too.

R.

Rich_007

Canada: the quiet country.

R.

neill

.....which is why English and French quebeckers alike vote for the Bloc, but not necessarily for the PQ. Of course you vote for a party that sticks up for your interests first.

I have been told by many Quebecois that voting Bloc doesn't mean you're a separatist, it means you want Quebec first.
OTOH, Voting PQ more or less is giving them a mandate to separate.

If there was a Pro-Ontario / Pro-Alberta party in either of those provinces, they would also assume a significant % of the votes.

Novocastrian

And indeed they do.