Chantale Hébert, columnist for The Toronto Star, Le Devoir, Actualité and frequent commnentator on the CBC and Radio Canada, has been doing some interesting reflection on what those who detest Stephen Harper might do to unseat him and his ilk. She's mused in both the Star and Le Devoir about the example of coalition government which Brits currently are showing us. She's also discussed the way the Thomas Mulcair of the NDP won the formerly Liberal riding of Outremont, first in a by election in 2007 and then in the 2008 general election and what that means for parties which want to unseat the Conservatives.
She points out the Michael Ignatieff has been a disaster for the Liberals, and that his popularity is lower than Stéphane Dion's was in 2008 when he was forced to step aside, She also suggests that Mulcair would be an asset for the NDP were it part of a coalition since he actually has had experience in government, albeit on the provincial level as a Liberal minister.
Serious thought must be given to how we can get rid of the Conservatives. This is a government which is systematically destroying decades of solid, mostly progressive policies. Instead of bringing the country together, it plays on fear and ethic and spirtual divisions to win seats: Le Devoir had four excellent stories on its tactics last weekend. But it does not--so far--represent a majority of population. Its current 34 per cent approval rating suggests that nearly two-thirds of the country is to its left. So how do we get rid of it?
By standing up to the Harperites on issues like the gun registry, abortion, health care, war, and by figuring out a way to unite the left.
TBC
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6 comments:
Good luck! I've tried so many times to convince peers on the left or centre-left to get their thumbs out of their asses and just TRY to find a few points that they can agree on, but it's like trying to regulate dumptruck time in a sandbox full of 3-year olds.
The Cons count on the 'opposition' being ridiculously obstinate and stubborn and it's why they're systematically chipping away at anything we believe in.
Unfortunately, Canadians won't do anything either until it's far too late and King Steve runs all of our lives.
What's more, can you honestly believe Layton hasn't jumped to the right? He would get into bed with Harpercons before with the liberals.
That long gun registry debacle is the final straw of a long line of events since he brought down the Paul Martin gov't in 2005.
Listen to radio or tv: NDP snipe at Liberals far more than they do Harpercons.
How would the LPC feel about a coalition with Jack as PM? All this talk about coalition (but not necessarily coalition) has Iggy as PM and it appears Canadians are against that. If the goal is to slay The Anti-Left surely no sacrifice by the LPC should be too great?
Uniting the left would entail some kind of coalition betwee the NDP and the Bloc, and I don't see how that is going to happen given their vastly different national outlooks, unless it is a coalition on specific programmatic issues.
I don't see the Liberal Party of Canada as in any way on the left, but there are possible tactical voting alliances with them if they make a commitment to support healthcare or to restore funding to housing, or if they could possibly show Trudeau-era backbone on international issues. Ignatieff is really terrible on issues of imperialism; I doubt he'd be much better than the Cons in that regard.
One thing that is heartening about the Bloc it that it really has qualitatively moved to the left; at its inception it was a rotten "Bloc" between nationalist Tories such as Bouchard and nationalist social-democrats such as Duceppe, Pierre Paquette, Francine Lalonde and Osvaldo Nuñez, who'd all be NDPers in English-speaking Canada. Most of the Tories have simply moved on, and the Bloc is actually better on some (but not all) issues than the NDP (especially gun control).
Harper got to be prime minister when the right came together and the PC's got out of their long-standing second place. It makes sense that a similar tactic ought to be performed to counter it.
In fact, I think that last election's increase in the profile of "strategic voting" (ie people voting against the Cons and not necessarily for their favored party) shows that the progressive population is not so concerned with the differences between the left leaning parties as their leaders seem to be.
Pretty funny girl that Chantal. For her, MI was the second coming of the saviour. Now he's awful. She couldn't possibly slam anyone more than she did Dion. ah the convenience of having a soapbox on the national news scene, eh.
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