Plastic wading pool is liberal response t G-8 pavilion.

It appears that fake lakes are springing up all over Canada. First the 1.9 million dollar Muskoka Lake look-alike in the Toronto G-8 pavilion. The simulated lake was created to maximize the experience of reporters who couldn’t make it to Huntsville, Ontario. Liberals, not to be outdone have responded with a faux lake of their own. Their’s ringing in at less than $20.

The difference? While Harper’s display includes cityscapes meant to highlight our economic success as a nation, a bar and a serene backdrop for all-important telecasts Ignatieff’s version is a little less extravagant. It’s made up of a blue plastic children’s wading pool in the Liberal leader’s front yard. The $20 dollar lake comes complete with a “No Diving” sign and life vests for anyone hoping to take a dip in the 3-inch deep water.
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Why is it that everything Stephen Harper tries to do becomes the potential trigger for an election? If you listen to Conservative Party spin-doctors you’d likely be led to the belief that the Opposition is building an offensive to take down the Government. Reality check: Mr. Harper, your Government is already at the will of the Opposition. If and when Michael Ignatieff wants to force an election he will do so and he won’t be stopped.

If anything is clear, this moment in time is not right for an election. This past week the Government has been in a deadlock fight with the Liberals over a proposed $3-billion fast-tracked stimulus fund. Why the uproar? Harper’s plan for getting the fund working fast is to bypass the generally required approval procedures for such funding.
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The budget was approved today by a 211 – 91 vote. As anticipated, the NDP and Bloc both voted against the budget. As well, the 6 Liberal MPs from Newfoundland and Labrador voted against the budget. Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff allowed these 6 MPs to vote against their own party as a one time protest vote to bring attention to the fact that the new budget is cutting out $1.6 billion in federal transfer payments to their province.

As decided upon yesterday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper will be required to provide updates and reports on the budget’s progress in March, June and December. At any of these points, if the opposition expresses non confidence in the government, Canada will have another election.

MPs voted 214 to 84 in favour of the Liberal budget amendments today. As expected, the NDP and Bloc voted against these changes.

Michael Ignatieff must be jumping for joy.
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Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff announced today that he would support the Conservative Party’s budget only if they agreed to certain Liberal-proposed amendments. Ignatieff said he wanted regular budget updates (Mar, June, Dec 2009) that would determine whether or not the Conservatives are successfully implementing a budget that is helping Canada and its citizens. At each update, a confidence vote would be held so that if the opposition parties are not happy with the Conservatives’ progress, they could take down the government.
This “probation” that Ignatieff is proposing has been met with mixed feelings.
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Harper is the Cause of the Forecasted Budget Deficit

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff lashed out at Harper for the upcoming deficit that is expected as a result of the new budget. Speaking to fellow caucus members this morning, Ignatieff lashed out at Prime Minister Stephen Harper stating that “this deficit is squarely Mr. Harper’s responsibility. He spent us down to the red line in the good times and so we face the hard times as citizens of a great country with the cupboard bare.”

After the Liberals’ decade of surplus budgets, it seems Ignatieff is very angry that Harper and his Conservative government have led us into a recession with nothing to spare. Does the infamous coalition live on?
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There is a word for it.

Canadians who despaired watching the dogfight that was our Leaders Debate now have a term to describe why the pitbull Jack Layton’s pugilism turned them off more than the obtuse self-involvement of Harper that night.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, that pneumatic Teuton we’ve come to know and love, Governor of  “Collyfornia,” declared on Sunday Night’s “60 Minutes” that “the left doesn’t like me . . . and the right doesn’t like me when I tax and spend,” concluding that he “can’t be psyched out” because he is in the service, not of the Republican Party, but of the public.

Arnie is postpartisan, a term we’d have used ourselves—if we’d known of it the night of our Canadian Leaders’ Debate—if merely to simply hurl it at the t.v. screen, along with the popcorn we were throwing at the unpleasant melee before us.  “Why can’t you all just behave like postpartisans,” we’d have shouted.
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