Also, wasn't Dion quitting as leader of the Liberals? Or is he just leader until the party decides on someone else (Bob Rae!) to take over? They should hurry that along. I have no problem w/ Jack and Gilles (haha!) but something keeps rubbing me the wrong way about Stéphane.
The Canadian government is falling. Rather than hold an election, the three opposition parties are arguing that, since they have a majority if they work together, they want to work together. They're petitioning the Head Of State to officially allow it.
Ours (http://renaissanceguy.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/declaration.jpg) still has more style. (Helpful hint: stick your historically-critical documents in a 200 degree oven to give it that awesome yellow crinkly look!)
A Liberal/NDP coalition I can see, and was hoping they would collectively win enough seats for that. But the Bloc coalescing with their hated enemies the Liberals? Further demonstrating that their claim that 'Canadian federalism doesn`t' work is complete bullshit? The Repub Conservatives screwed up big time to cause this to happen!
'Politics makes strange bedfellows.'
We are seeing some history being made live on the air, details at eleven. Exciting times!
The Bloc's spent the last few elections fighting off the *CPC* in most ridings - and getting hammered, from my perspective over on this side of the river, by the fact that lots of Quebecers seem to *like* the federal government.
So, proving that they can still be a Quebec-centric party *and* make the fedgov work? That's a nice trick for them.
I wonder if that cancels any legal standing it might have, or if on the way to the Governor General's office, they stop off at a time/date clock and let it get kerpunched with the date and time of delivery.
With a signature like that, I suspect he spends a LOT of time initialing things. Do it enough, and unless you really concentrate, your signature gets reduced to abstract art just to save you time every day.
We're utterly, utterly screwed. A Liberal or (god fucking forbid) NDP government would be bad enough on their own. But these clowns are actually going to combine their ideas and sink the country.
With the Bloc holding the balance of power.
Great.
This is just a desperate power grab, by desperate and jealous politicians.
Give me another election, please. I was happy with a Conservative minority; But I'll happily take a majority if it'll put a stop to this pending catastrophe.
As opposed to, say, selling off Crown property and de-funding opposition parties, lying about the budget numbers that your own economists have come up with, and passing a law making it a crime to have a copy of iTunes on your computer?
The CPC are a *disaster*, mitigated only by the fact that they're a minority. And now, the people that 67% of Canada voted for, who hold significantly more than half the elected seats, are going to stop them from fucking it up any further. This isn't a "power grab" and it's not a "coup", it's a perfectly valid, bog-standard fact of life in a parliamentary system. The fact that it hasn't happened on a federal level in Canada in a lifetime doesn't change that.
If the CPC had been at all willing to work with or consider the desires of THE MAJORITY OF THE COUNTRY, they wouldn't have gotten their incredibly stupid and dangerouslycounterproductive budget rightfully crushed and they wouldn't be out of office after losing a vote of no confidence.
I'm very confused by all this talk of a "power grab" and a "bloodless coup". Coalition governments are formed all over the democratic world when several semi-to-kindofnotreally compatible parties decide they dislike the party that won the plurality and decide to band together to form the government. It's democratic, it's legal, and personally I think it's pretty neat.
I'm just amused by all the Americans wondering what the heck is happening. The current Opposition and the past hojillion years of Government in my countries are Coalitions. It isn't that weird, you guys. In, you know, countries that have real political systems with more than two parties.
Also: I really like Jack's signature. He really relished that moment. Stephane's is very boring, and Gilles' just gives me the impression he's not taking this very seriously.
-Canada has an election. -Canadian voters in mass say "fuck these douchebags they are incompetent and we are not voting for them" and then do not vote. -The hardcore voters still vote but not with any power behind their numbers. -Liberal voters outnumber conservative voters and the liberal leader gets put in office but does not have any majority behind him/her. -The majority of the public is discontent about this asshat. -All 3 parties go "oh shit they're tired of us, lets combine our powers." -They summon Captain Planet and he kicks America's ass? ??? Profit.
You've got it backwards. The Liberals are still being punished, so it's the Conservatives who outnumbered the rest and got most but not a majority of seats. This is because there are *three* non-Conservative parties - the Liberals, who are centrist (roughly a million miles to the left of the American Democratic Party), the NDP (extreme-left-wing - for Canada, making them about the same as the American Communist Party), and the Bloc Quebecois (slightly to the left of the Liberals, but concerned only with the affairs of Quebec).
Combined, those three got 60% of the vote. And still lost, because there's three of them and that means the seats got split.
And then, because they figured the Liberals were in worse shape now than before the election, they tried to push through a bill that eliminates the funding for parties other than themselves, as well as trying to gut the economy American-style. They figured that the rest of the parties would have to either: a) block the bill, bring the government down, and cause another election. Since the Cons have the most money in the bank at the moment, have been illegally diverting federal funds into their own advertising, and because the Libs have a leadership convention scheduled, they figured that they could claim that the Libs were just being obstructionist and hadn't given them a chance, and were hoping to lie long and loud enough to get a majority this time. b) pass the bill and cripple their ability to pay their debts, leaving them helpless and cash-strapped in the *next* election.
The other three parties simply pointed out that there is an option c.
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Date: 2008-12-02 05:34 pm (UTC)I'm definitely interested to see how this goes.
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Date: 2008-12-02 05:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2008-12-02 05:42 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2008-12-02 05:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2008-12-02 07:53 pm (UTC)am I wrong? either way, what's it from?
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Date: 2008-12-03 01:14 am (UTC)at least we have a better system than yours.
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Date: 2008-12-02 05:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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From:The Canadian Government!
Date: 2008-12-02 05:51 pm (UTC)Re: The Canadian Government!
Date: 2008-12-02 06:06 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-02 06:09 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-02 10:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-02 06:14 pm (UTC)This rocks so hard.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-02 06:21 pm (UTC)They're gonna do it.
Apologies for the double-post, but...
Date: 2008-12-02 06:25 pm (UTC)Re: Apologies for the double-post, but...
Date: 2008-12-02 06:37 pm (UTC)http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/12/01/coalition-talks.html
Re: Apologies for the double-post, but...
From:Wow.
Date: 2008-12-02 06:47 pm (UTC)RepubConservatives screwed up big time to cause this to happen!'Politics makes strange bedfellows.'
We are seeing some history being made live on the air, details at eleven. Exciting times!
:-)
A.
Re: Wow.
Date: 2008-12-02 06:53 pm (UTC)So, proving that they can still be a Quebec-centric party *and* make the fedgov work? That's a nice trick for them.
Re: Wow.
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Date: 2008-12-02 07:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-02 07:17 pm (UTC)I wonder if that cancels any legal standing it might have, or if on the way to the Governor General's office, they stop off at a time/date clock and let it get kerpunched with the date and time of delivery.
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From:Makes sense.
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Date: 2008-12-02 07:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2008-12-02 08:34 pm (UTC)With the Bloc holding the balance of power.
Great.
This is just a desperate power grab, by desperate and jealous politicians.
Give me another election, please. I was happy with a Conservative minority; But I'll happily take a majority if it'll put a stop to this pending catastrophe.
(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-02 09:22 pm (UTC)As opposed to, say, selling off Crown property and de-funding opposition parties, lying about the budget numbers that your own economists have come up with, and passing a law making it a crime to have a copy of iTunes on your computer?
The CPC are a *disaster*, mitigated only by the fact that they're a minority. And now, the people that 67% of Canada voted for, who hold significantly more than half the elected seats, are going to stop them from fucking it up any further. This isn't a "power grab" and it's not a "coup", it's a perfectly valid, bog-standard fact of life in a parliamentary system. The fact that it hasn't happened on a federal level in Canada in a lifetime doesn't change that.
If the CPC had been at all willing to work with or consider the desires of THE MAJORITY OF THE COUNTRY, they wouldn't have gotten their incredibly stupid and dangerouslycounterproductive budget rightfully crushed and they wouldn't be out of office after losing a vote of no confidence.
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Date: 2008-12-02 10:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2008-12-03 02:00 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2008-12-03 06:14 am (UTC)Also: I really like Jack's signature. He really relished that moment. Stephane's is very boring, and Gilles' just gives me the impression he's not taking this very seriously.
Let me see if I've got this right.
Date: 2008-12-03 06:27 am (UTC)-Canadian voters in mass say "fuck these douchebags they are incompetent and we are not voting for them" and then do not vote.
-The hardcore voters still vote but not with any power behind their numbers.
-Liberal voters outnumber conservative voters and the liberal leader gets put in office but does not have any majority behind him/her.
-The majority of the public is discontent about this asshat.
-All 3 parties go "oh shit they're tired of us, lets combine our powers."
-They summon Captain Planet and he kicks America's ass?
???
Profit.
??
Re: Let me see if I've got this right.
Date: 2008-12-03 01:51 pm (UTC)Combined, those three got 60% of the vote. And still lost, because there's three of them and that means the seats got split.
And then, because they figured the Liberals were in worse shape now than before the election, they tried to push through a bill that eliminates the funding for parties other than themselves, as well as trying to gut the economy American-style. They figured that the rest of the parties would have to either:
a) block the bill, bring the government down, and cause another election. Since the Cons have the most money in the bank at the moment, have been illegally diverting federal funds into their own advertising, and because the Libs have a leadership convention scheduled, they figured that they could claim that the Libs were just being obstructionist and hadn't given them a chance, and were hoping to lie long and loud enough to get a majority this time.
b) pass the bill and cripple their ability to pay their debts, leaving them helpless and cash-strapped in the *next* election.
The other three parties simply pointed out that there is an option c.
Re: Let me see if I've got this right.
From: