DaveLovesDee

The egomaniac will bully the wimp, and the separatist will threaten to leave if they don't get what they want.

It can only help Harper win a majority in the next election.

Atlantic Xpat

Nah, I imagine that a consequence of Harper shooting himself and the Tory's collectively in their feet he'll get the order of the boot and a new ubergruppenfuhrer will arise. Stockwell Day for Prime Minister anyone?

DaveLovesDee

Dalton McGuinty as Stephane Dion's replacement?

Iain Mc

Funny, that's just how I see it panning out too.

The NDP and the Bloc are going to be wielding increasingly disproportional influence in exchange for continued support. Might be merry times ahead for the unions in Ontario and the arts in Quebec but not much to cheer about for Western Canada.

Of course, the REALLY daft thing is that if a month down the road the Bloc have a falling out with the Liberals it'd be perfectly possible for them to strike up a coalition with the Tories and hey ho, another new Government. They (the Bloc) are the real winners here.

GavinR

Wehey

Long live the Alberta Separatist Movement.

MarkG

We _have_ a major banking crisis: Western governments have thrown a trillion dollars or more at banks and other financial companies, which is now sitting in bank vaults because they're not willing to risk lending the money out. Instead, that money could have gone to productive uses, even if it meant that the governments had to bail out savers after banks went bust.

Better than letting banks become zombies the way that Japan did in the 90s; that's one of the main reasons why they've pretty much been in a recession for twenty years now.

If you want to stimulate an economy, you don't do it by borrowing money and putting it in a bank vault; that's a good way to turn a recession into a depression.

Almost Canadian

I fail to understand the reference to "Westminster style parliamentary democracy" - no criticism of you particularly, I am hearing this everywhere.

In Westminster, the Government are not infrequently defeated on votes, yet that does not cause a crises as it seems to over here. I do not know of a vote in which the Harper Government has suffered a defeat - so where is the loss of confidence?

Surely it is for the electorate to voice their concerns, not some politicians whose manifestos have been "rejected" by the electorate in the recent election.

I am not eligible to vote in Canada, I have never voted in my life in England, so I have no particular axe to grind here. I just think that, if the "coalition" really feel that their positions are justified, they should put their money where their mouths are and put it to the electorate in a new election.

Novocastrian

Not on votes of confidence. In that case the government falls.

You're right, the non confidence vote in Ottawa hasn't taken place yet. It was scheduled for yesterday, but Harper postponed it for a week (so far). I fully expect the unprincipled rogue to prorogue parliament before then in order to postpone it further (until January). He will probably recall the House for a vote on a new Throne speech a day or two before presenting a budget on Jan. 26th. Meanwhile many many people will have lost their jobs, but why should he care about that?

Parliamentary first past the post elections are by their nature queer beasts. No-one ever votes for what happens. i.e. none of the splutterers on here voted for a minority government, but collectively that was the result. It was equally the result that the combined opposition parties have sufficient seats to form a majority, if they can agree to do so. This is now likely to happen (sooner or later).

It's impractical to have an election every couple of months. There is no need if a majority coalition can be formed within the currently elected House.

rwin

We tried that already.

Novocastrian

That was the last election. The wimp has learned his lesson. You don't poke Harper with a stick. You squash him.

Pretty Flowers

Really, better to have a great depression, which only really ended as a result of the second world war? Fantastic, see you in the line-up at the next soup kitchen.

The whole banking system is built on the principle of confidence. IIRC when I studied economics, banks typically lend out ten times the amount in deposits that they have in loans. If people lose confidence in the banks and claim their deposits, banks go into bankruptcy very quickly. The whole idea of the bail out package is to prevent this loss of confidence. That's why much of the money has been spent in guaranteeing loans. While the credit tightening that we're experiencing at the moment is clearly very unfortunate for a lot of people, it's very small potatoes in comparison to a break down of the financial system, which would mean that millions of people would lose their money. Given a choice of the two, I know which I would rather support.

Actions such as the UK government guaranteeing bank deposits up to a value of $100k are undertaken precisely to avoid such a situation.

hwp

Hmm.... can he still fit into his wetsuit?

Steve_P

...and just where did he store that Seadoo?

jancal

Exactly - we had an election - you lost - get over it!! All this bickering will not help in any way.

GavinR

Eh? Seemed to me that the electorate were pretty clear on not wanting Dion as Prime Minister.