Friday 28 November 2008

A One Word Message to Michaëlle Jean: Coalition!

Stephen Harper is playing chicken again, and this time the other guys might not blink.

Most Canadian voters did not vote for the Conservatives six weeks ago in the federal general election. so there is no reason for Stephen Harper to govern as if they had a majority. The budget update that Jim Flaherty delivered yesterday was appalling on many counts, not least because it assumes that since nobody wants another election at this point, they have a free hand to follow their economic ideology--an ideology which is completely out of step with reality and with what other countries are doing.

If the government loses a vote on a confidence motion Monday night and Harper goes to Governor General Michaëlle Jean to ask for a dissolution of Parliament, she has every right, it seems, to ask the leader of the opposition to form a coalition. This is what should be done. Back in October when I was phoning for the NDP, many people already were talking favourablyl about the idea of a coalition. It is an idea whose time as come. Let’s hope that the Liberals don’t cave in as they did 43 times in the last Parliament and allow the budget message to be approved.

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