Coalition Government?

[FarmRanger]

If those 3 parties had campaigned with a promise of forming a coalition with a $billion buyoff and U.S. president-like veto power for the bloc,.... is there any chance that Harper wouldn't have a super majority right now?

[cakadu]

The Bloc have been around for at least 15 years now, Mr. Harper didn't feel they were separatists when he was working behind the scenes with them to try and unseat Martin, but that was okay because he didn't do anything formal.

Can someone please explain to me how this can possibly be a separatist coalition when between them the NDP and Liberals have more votes/seats than the Bloc? they each only have one vote, how can it be a separatist coalition?

Why is it that it has taken 15 years for anyone to figure out, the PM included, that the Bloc was all about separation?

I see that the separatist "spin" has done what Harper wanted it to ... get people afraid.

62% of the voters in the last election did NOT vote for Harper. Even with the increase in seats, it did not get him the one thing he wanted, which was a majority.

If Harper had come out and actually done what he said he would do, which was try and work with this parliament, instead of trying to pull the rug out from underneath them, we wouldn't be in this mess. Instead he acts like more of a bully and has his nose bloodied.

All this has done was prolong the inevitable, which is to have yet another election. Do you recall that Harper broke his election promise from 2 years ago by calling an election to try and suit his own needs, which resulted in the election in October?

Think of how he must feel, when faced with the weakest slate of candidates in an election, Harper still could not get a majority. There is one person and one person alone responsible for this mess and he should be taking a long, hard look in the mirror.

[FarmRanger]

Well cakadu, Harper never ever suggested forming a government with the support of separatists. Big difference.

The reason it’s a separatist coalition is because they had to bribe the bloc into the coalition with promises of copious amounts of goodies in order to have them vote with them for 18 months. A signed deal with separatists to usurp the government without the bother of another election. Harper did a great job of smoking out this conspiracy, it would have been a lot more damaging if they’d waited until the budget.

You may be right that 62% of voters didn’t vote for Harper as PM. This coalition will install a PM who 74% of us didn’t vote for and leave him there for at least 18 months. Is that better?? Is it democracy??
And how relevant is that number anyway, I didn’t hear anyone complaining when Chretian in 1997 had a majority government where 62% voted against him. At the height of Trudeau’s reign the BEST he achieved was 55% voting AGAINST him. In fact only 6 governments of the 40 parliaments had better than 50% of the vote.

This 62% number is a smokescreen to justify usurping the legitimate election of the conservatives to install a coalition of losers without holding another election. If the losers want to run again as a coalition, then vote no confidence, have an election, and run one candidate in each riding against the conservatives. If they win that, then the coalition is legitimate. No, they had to threaten a coup.

During the election campaign, Dion promised he wouldn’t be forming any coalition with the NDs, let alone the and NDs and the separatist bloc. If the national media wasn’t thoroughly anti-conservatives they would have pointed a few of these facts out, instead of letting the coalition of losers have a complete free ride during this whole fiasco. Instead they are all over Harper because he prorogued parliament, trying to give the hotheads a chance to cool down.

I’ll bet Harper is disgusted with this whole mess. The 38% who voted for him sure should be. And judging by the polls, it’s up to 46% now (large majority territory). 56% say they would rather have another election than be governed by the coalition. And that’s even with the negative spin that’s being thrown at Harper. 56% is also more support than any party has ever received in a Canadian election except Robert Borden’s Unionists (56.9%) in 1917.

I suspect that come the end of January, a lot of Liberals will have realized what a boneheaded move this was and will be sitting on their hands again at voting time.

[silverback]

Cak,

Read our lips, "MORE PEOPLE VOTED CONSERVATIVE IN THE LAST ELECTION THAN THE PREVIOUS ELECTION"

What part of that can you not understand?

Name one "EVIL" policy that the current government has brought before parliment to warrant your anger and seething hatred of this one man. Just one.

[coppertop]

I haven't been checking this site for awhile, but thought there might be some discussion on the coalition or COUP !!
I think it is gone by the wayside, and the Liberals are scrambling to get rid of Dion and get a leader in place before the House resumes sitting.
I feel that Harper baited the opposition once too often, hopefully when the budget is tabled cooler heads will prevail on all sides.
The coalition would have been disastrous for Alberta, and Canada. Layton would have had a lot of clout, so of course his main target would be the oilsands, which, whether anyone believes it or not, is the economic engine of this country.
Any government with the Bloc holding the balance of power is scary for the future of Canada.
I think that if the Liberals can find enough friends to hold a non-confidence vote on the budget in January, the Conservatives will get a majority government. The cost to the country holding elections whenver someone doesn't want to play in the sandbox is huge, we need a strong government to see us through this economic downturn.
I don't know if any of you watch Huckabee on the Fox Channel, last evening he had a former governor of South Carolina speaking on how they pulled together to get new industries when some of their major ones closed. They did not ask for a bailout or a stimulous package, and they have companies like Toyota, BMW building vehicles in their state and employing people.I think Harper was correct not to provide for a stimulous package until he brings in his budget.

[cakadu]

Woah there silverback. I think you are reading far too much into my comments. I have not said whether or not I am in favor of the coalition or even support it. What I have said is that they have done nothing illegal or untoward - it is written into our constitution.

The present government hasn't brought anything evil, just haven't lived up to what they said they were going to do. In fact, what they have brought has been fairly watered down or non-existant.

FarmRanger - Harper did have discussions and plans with the Bloc to unseat Paul Martin about 4 years ago and I don't think that the Bloc had any different policies and/or intentions than they do now.

Despite more folks voting conservative, they - primarily Harper, still couldn't get a majority -- essentially they just took back some of the seats they had lost in the previous election. He didn't get the "plum" he wanted, so the bullying tactics started and when he got the others sufficiently riled up, he ran away, as most bullies do. (Shouting to try and get others to come to your way of thinking, doesn't do much good either.)

He came out of the election saying he would work with this parliament and immediately started kicking them when they were down. Whether the subsidies were right or wrong didn't matter - he came out of the gates swinging and hid behind mom when things got too rough.

The coalition likely will implode...meanwhile the fiddles are going, Rome is burning and they aren't dealing with the real issues. I vote for prorouging salaries until they come back to the sandbox and play nice together.

As an aside, ask anyone from another country - particularly a European country - and they see nothing wrong with a coalition government. It seems that we do.

[silverback]

Do you know which countries have them or are you just repeating what you heard Jack layton say?

The countries that have coalition governments don't have the cancer of a party whose sole purpose is to destroy that country.

There is no way to justify signing a document that legitimizes the Bloc's ability to control the purse strings of Canada. Just because they "promised" not to act badly while supporting the libs and ndp obscures the fact they were guaranteed oversight of new bills and policies. It is downright stupid to get involved with someone who would take as much of our tax dollars as possible and then split up our country.

How is taking the taxpayer subsidy away from political parties - all of them - a bad thing? Most people think it is the right thing to do. Is that bullying?

They were back in parliment for two weeks. Did you watch any of it? The opposition parties started firing away because the world economy was dropping off and we were headed into a period of deficits. Evil harper couldn't maintain a surplus - remember that? Now they tried a coup and what was their first order of business? Blow 30 Billion out the door of TAXPAYER MONEY!
So 2 weeks ago deficits were bad and now they are ok.?

Maybe try another example of the evil that has been brought upon this land by harper.

[cakadu]

Why bother? You're not listening anyway and have not gotten any of my points. It's okay though, cause it will be a victory.

[silverback]

You were trying to make the point that the mess we are in is all because of the prime minister and him alone. You want him to resign.

Your other point was that the bloc aren't so bad and it would be ok for the opposition to get into bed with them.

No?

If those aren't the two points you have tried to make then I guess my reading abilities need correcting.

[cakadu]

I have never said I want the prime minister to resign, so please go and re-read my posts. Have I said he is responsible for the mess, yes I have.

I have also never said that the Bloc weren't so bad - I've said their agenda has been known since they've become a national political party, which is all about separation. I have never said I support the coalition. Again, go and re-read what I've actually written.

Methinks there has been a little reading between the lines and ad libbing.

Quite frankly, I don't know which is the lesser of the two evils, but I will leave the debate now before I am accused of something else.