Liberal and NDP Alliance
The economy is fine... I promise!
I think Harper must be dizzy from all the turning around he has been doing about the economy. Harper had been saying for weeks and weeks that the economy was fine – both before and after the election. Then part way into November, he stopped and headed in the other direction, announcing that this is the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. The next natural step would be to have his finance minister announce a sound economic plan to stimulate the economy to try and lessen the impact of this crisis. However, it appears that Harper, in his dizzy state, turned around once more and decided that the situation is not as bad as it seems.
This leaves Canada with no stimulus package in what is projected to be a very serious global recession. This has also left Canada with millions of angry individuals who are scared they might lose their jobs or may not be able to support their families. Included in those millions are a few important people such as the members of the Liberal, NDP, and Bloq Parties.
On Monday, there was supposed to be a No-Confidence Vote. If the members of the House of Commons vote that they have no confidence in the current government, then the Conservative Party will be brought down. Once brought down, the Liberal Party and the NDP hope to form a coalition and present themselves as a viable alternative government to take control of Canada. Our Governor General, Michaelle Jean, will have the option of accepting this proposed coalition or allowing for Harper to call another election. The Bloq Quebecois has decided that if this occurs, they would support (but not join) the coalition, as long as it supported Quebec’s forestry and manufacturing sectors which are in need of economic assistance. The Bloq’s support in the upcoming vote would solidify the fall of the Conservatives. Harper has 143 seats right now. The Liberals and NDP have 114 combined. With the addition of the support from 49 Bloq MPs, bringing the total to 163, the Conservative Party faces a very plausible threat at this vote.
Harper delayed this vote by a week until Dec. 8th. Another similar vote that could have brought the government down has also been cancelled. It appears that Harper has panicked and is delaying the vote in order to better analyze the situation and buy more time. Cancelling this vote has provided the opposition parties with an amazing opportunity to use the extra week to regroup and gain more support from both party members and the Canadian public.
If I was Harper, I would likely spend the next week trying to put together some package for stimulating the economy. It is clear that the other parties are prepared to bring down the current government and it would be futile to continue to claim that the Conservative economic platform is working successfully.
This whole situation raises two major issues:
Issue 1: Is this a fair way to take control of the government?
Harper states that the Liberals and NDP seek to “take” power instead of “earn” it. However, is this really the case? The Liberals and NDP are able to overthrow the government only because of the amount of seats they won in the election. This means that they did in fact earn this power. Canadian voters put these parties into Parliament for them to do everything they can to make Canada a better place. By voting for the MP we are trusting them to take the best actions possible and regardless of whether or not what they are doing right now is seen as “good” or “bad,” the MPs have definitely earned their right to take this action.
Issue 2: Is this a good thing for Canada? Is there even a chance it will work?
It appears that the general consensus from most news sources is that the coalition is likely not going to ever happen. Most experts believe that Michelle Jean would not be convinced that the coalition will be feasible. As well, many feel that the Liberals and NDP will be unable to agree with each other on many issues and this lack of cohesion will cast a shadow of doubt over the whole coalition prospect.
However, I completely disagree. Looking at the Liberal and NDP platforms from the most recent direction, one can see a very high degree of correlation. On nearly every single issue, both parties agree on the major problems. Furthermore, the solutions for these problems are extremely similar in most cases. I strongly believe that both parties have the same goals in mind and the hardest part will not be agreeing in the first place that this is an issue (as many experts are suggesting), but rather, it will be determining what the best method is to achieve the goal of fixing the issue.
I really think this can work. What do you think?
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Tags: coalition, conservative, government, harper, liberal, NDP
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