Bob Broughton's blog
The deal they've cut in Ottawa
Do you remember how angry you were when Stephen Harper called the October election, because he broke a law passed by his own government to do so? If you've forgotten, don't kick yourself too hard, because mentions of this fact in the Canwest Global/Corus/Asper press disappeared a few days after the start of the election campaign.
Instead, the Canwest Global/Corus/Asper media started telling us how electing another Conservative government would be good for Canada's economy. Don't hold your breath waiting for these people to tell us, "sorry, we got this one wrong." Instead, they're going all out to tell us about all the terrible things that will happen if the Harper government is replaced by a Liberal-NDP-BQ coalition. Take, for example, a large headline that appeared on the front page of the December 2 Vancouver Sun: "Will Coalition Shut Out B.C.?"
Huh? A coalition cabinet wouldn't include NDP stars Libbie Davies, Dawn Black, Peter Julian, or Bill Siksay? Or former BC Premier Ujjal Dosanjh? Or former cabinet ministers Keith Martin or Hedy Fry?
It's fear-mongering, pure and simple, and the reason why the Republicans-in-Canadian-disguise are doing this is because they are desperate.
As a person who has a long memory, I can tell you that when I moved to Canada in 1981, the same bunch of people were telling us that Joe Clark was a fool for losing the government.
I'll address a pertinent fact: 62% of the voters in the October election chose someone other than the Conservatives, and polls consistently showed that Canadians did not want a Conservative majority government. They got it right; the budget announced by Harper last week is conclusive evidence that a Conservative majority government would be a very bad thing, and I now hope that this never happens during my lifetime.
Why this anger? Because the thing that Canada needs more than anything else is electoral reform, and by that, I mean a system where we can vote for the candidates and parties we really want, instead of being forced into "strategic voting" just to prevent people we don't want from getting in. The Reform Party, the predecessor of the current Conservative Party, talked about electoral reform a lot; remember the "Triple-E Senate"? Harper has moved in the opposite direction, first by passing a law stipulating fixed election dates, then breaking this law at the first opportunity. His move last week to end public financing of political parties (translation: bringing back oil industry financing of political parties) was the last straw for a lot of people. The cost of public financing was $30 million annually, only one-tenth the cost of the unwanted election that Harper gave us in October.
No, I do not like the idea of cutting a deal with a traitor like Gilles Duceppe. You probably won't hear much about this from the Conservatives, because Harper tried to cut a deal with the same Gilles Duceppe a couple of years ago. Harper did so because of a simple reality of our British-concept parliamentary system; the Prime Minister and Cabinet need the "confidence" of Parliament in order to hold their jobs. The talk of "unconstitutionality" or "illegality" we're getting from Canwest Global/Corus/Asper is just another effort to deceive people who don't know any better. Harper blundered away the confidence of Parliament, and if the Liberal-NDP-BQ coalition holds together, they, and not the Conservatives, have what we call majority support. We voters didn't want a Conservative majority government, and there's now a good chance we'll get what we voted for. And don't forget, we weren't supposed to have a Federal election this year, anyway.
Story from The Real News:
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