Saturday, August 14, 2010

Where caution goes too far

This is more of a rant than my typical more academic approach.


At some point politicians and citizens need to be able to say enough is enough and stand up to their government and demand an election.

For me this happened years ago when Harper decided to "save" $0.10 per Canadian, but scraping the Charter challenge fund, which helped regular Canadians afford the cost of taking legislation to court for violating the constitution.  Trudeau considered this absolutely vital to making the Constitution a safeguard for the people.  But the Liberals and the opposition squabbled little over this and it was destroyed without much of a fight.



Since that time there have been a number of actions that have trampled out rights.  Such as making pay equity for women 'negotiable' rather than a legal case. Not to mention the latest of such moves in making the long census form voluntary, thus inhibiting minority needs and limiting the oppositions access to information.  Ignatieff's Liberals have continued to make threats to call an election if Harper does this or that, and have failed to act when the PM calls their bluff.

Mr. Ignatieff, I'd rather you be PM than Harper, but you disappoint me and many of your supporters by continuing to prop up Harper's neo-con government.  I am aware that the polls don't give you a clear lead and I am aware that the Liberals do not have the same war chest as the Conservatives do, but it's long past time to throw caution to the wind.

The Conservatives have lied to us repeatedly, they've told us immediately prior to the previous election that we had a multi-billion dollar surplus, only to 'discover' a few weeks afterward the vote that it was actually a deficit in excess of $10 billion dollars.  They continue to limit media access to them, and inhibit the flow of information that is critical for citizens and the opposition to evaluate their performance.  Lastly, they tell us that they are financially conservative while pointlessly wasting billions of dollars on unnecessary F-35s, tax cuts for the wealthy, and G20 conferences that are now estimated to be 4 - 5 more expensive than any other.

FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT'S SACRED!!!!!

CALL AN ELECTION!

Don't let them weasel their way out of their responsibilities.

Don't let them get away with their lies.

You have everything you need to win!  Take it to the people, present it with charisma and outrage and remove these zealots from office!

If you need to form a coalition, it's in the constitution is a legitimate feature of our democratic government!

4 comments:

  1. Problem is, Ignatieff knows if he pulls the "coalition" card, he'll get killed in the following election.. and chances are, if we have another election we're going to end up with a Conservative government anyway.

    Plus.

    Most Canadians could give a rats ass about the things that you find so egregious. I'm not even necessarily disagreeing with all of your points - but the polls indicate that the public is pretty apathetic about an election on any of these points.

    My advice.

    Create a platform, LPC. Move somewhat to centre, a la Paul Martin, and there are some fence-sitters who might suddenly reconsider their vote.

    But all of these non-scandal scandals might raise the hackles of the "liberal elite", but for bread and butter Canadians, they could care less about terrorist mistreatement, buying jets the Liberals put in motion buying years ago and they sure as hell are not happy about welcoming a boatload of Tamils on our shore.

    However.

    If the Liberals scrapped the national daycare program and promised a balanced budget by a combination of reduced spending and a modest increase to the GST - I might think about them.

    Problem is - the Liberal ideas all involve grand schemes to increase spending (daycare, carbon tax) that, in a recessionary period, is hardly attractive to people trying to hold onto jobs and keep businesses afloat.

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  2. OMG, Harvie is one of the "could care less" people. Please, listen to John Cleese: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCUsPnKD1gk

    The national day care proposal was popular, to my recollection.

    If the Cons win another minority, then the opposition ought to form a coalition. No two ways about it. It would be more representative of the goals and values that most Canadians vote for. Most Canadians voted for a left or left-of-centre party. That we currently have a right wing government is the absurdity of out electoral system.

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  3. OMG, Harvie is one of the "could care less" people.

    That's because he's being creative Marissa! Like his two-dot ellipses. And his one word paragraphs, which are totally the result of creativity and not the result of being influenced by advertising copy.

    And don't you know better than to question his wisdom? If he says he knows what "bread and butter Canadians" think and want, by golly, you'd better believe he knows what he's talking about! His social circle might be entirely limited to white, middle/upper-middle class Albertans, but he is at heart an "Average Canadian," and hence knows what all "average Canadians" think and want. And what the "Average Canadian" wants is, of course, what should decide government policy. Not things like ethics and responsibility and a concern for the common good.

    And if it's an issue that the "Average Canadian" doesn't care about, I guess that means it's of no importance at all! The "Average Canadian" doesn't care about the F35s? That means that $16 billion spent by the government... it's like it never happened! No real-world implications whatsoever!

    Oh, Marissa, there is so much for you to learn that Harvie could teach you!

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  4. Oh, and I watched that video and John Cleese is teh awesome. He is my new hero.

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