Bandwagon blogging...

This is a little different. I'm jumping on the blogging bandwagon. Well, the hot topic the last couple of days has been Canadian politics??? I guess we have the ying to Obama's yang? Not really, but at least people are taking an interest in politics a little bit. I had a discussion with my friend the other day, and I decided that there were enough emails back and forth to be able to blog about. I have copied some parts and threw together multiple emails. Things may seem a little fragmented, but I hope that I can make it flow. Originally, this was a set of emails going back and forth, and this blog only displays the "forth" part.

I have paraphrased and edited my comments below:

I don’t think a coalition government is a very democratic parliamentary option in Canada. Canadians may have chosen to vote against a Harper majority, but they still voted to give him power and not power to a coalition government. I hope it’s just a big game of chicken. We certainly do not need another election at the moment. We need a government in place to deal with the financial crisis.

The issue has started from mistakes that Harper has made. First, he refused the right to strike for public servants. Second, he wanted to take money away from political parties that received compensation for their election expenses. Given the strength of the Conservatives in fundraising in other methods, this seriously jeopardized the independence parliamentarians need in order to be effective in a democratic government. A saavy political move to weaken opponents, fundamentally it was wrong as it would give lobbyists more power. Lobbyists would essentially become the funders of elections and their money would be used to further their causes, not the will of the people. Therefore, in order to stop Harper from pulling the fundraising carpet from under other political parties, a strong opposition is beneficial.

I take this line from the Citizen - "The craziest part is that the Liberals have done precisely what any decent Official Opposition should do --dig in hard against unacceptable government action to force change. The Harper government has also reacted the way minority governments should, by bending to the will of rivals and rethinking a bad move." This is how a minority government should work.

I voted for a strong Liberal opposition, and not a coalition. Coalitions work in other parts of the world because they are openly discussed. We haven’t had a coalition in Canada since WWI. The current buzz on parliament has been created by a bunch of backroom deals (not very democratic in my books). I don't want to generalize too much about all coalition governments, but the proposed merger is a slap in the face to Canadian voters. I think parliament worked very effectively as a minority government during the last session, and Canadians voted for more of the same. It might have frustrated many people, but that is what we voted for.

Brace yourself.

I think there is a fundamental difference between voting down the government and forming a coalition. Just because Harper has proposed items that have stirred the pot, it does not mean that the opposition has the right to revoke the choice of Canadians during the election. To say that he is using a dictator’s approach by railroading his policies through, and, he needs to have his powers revoked, is buying into the media rhetoric. Harper has subsequently backed down from some of his proposals, thus, the opposition parties have no basis to form a coalition as they are being effective in controlling him. The only unresolved issue is the economy, but this issue was openly discussed in the election and Canadians have entrusted Harper with its management. It was the biggest issue during the election, so, again, the opposition has no basis to seize power.

Fundamentally, the reason for the coalition is so that the NDP and Liberals can manage the economy with a $30 billion stimulus package. They are doing this despite a clear an open debate during the election on the economy. Canadians were able to evaluate this and obviously preferred the Harper approach where he urged that our economy is in better shape than the American one, and there is no immediate need to panic. Harper has been in consultation with other world leaders and economists to help him decide the best course of action. They are attempting to clean up spending, and are releasing a new budget early next year.

On the other hand, the package proposed by the new “coalition” primarily is supposed to benefit the auto sector and other manufacturing. These are unionized environments, and Jack Layton is simply succumbing to the power of his primary source of electoral support. There is a reason that the NDP was forcing the issue, first with the Bloc then with the Liberals. If Layton didn’t do this and help the automotive and manufacturing sectors, he would not have the support in future elections.

Now, I don’t know the exact details of the stimulus package, but $30 billion is a lot of money. My concern is that the automotive sector and some manufacturing have been on life support for quite a while. Automotive giants Chrysler, Ford and GM have been flawed with poor designs and out of date manufacturing processes. They have survived for years on subsidies and tax breaks from governments just to keep plants open in key electoral battlegrounds. This probably sounds cold as many people would end up losing their jobs, but the $30 billion is just a one-time fix up. It will only be a matter of time before the money runs out and Canadians are both out of a job and $30 billion dollars.

Finally, I feel bad for Dion. He is being villified by the conservatives, but at the same time, his new "coalition" is simply leaving up to hang. Party leader hopefuls are acting like cowards behind the scenes. If Canada was in a true crisis, why do they not come forward? How is it that a man deemed not fit to lead the Liberal party be deemed to lead our country during a financial crisis? Overall, the current political environment stinks as there appears to be rampant opportunism on both sides of the political spectrum. Ultimately, I think parliamentarians should respect the will of the election which was a minority Conservative government. This government should be more cooperative and make parliament work.