Anniversary of a recent coalition government in Canada

Impolitical: Happy anniversary

Bob
Rae writes today about the 25th anniversary of the Liberal-NDP
governing accord in Ontario. Excerpts presented here for historical
reminiscing and well, who cares it's just good educational, timely and
topical stuff in light of the UK events too:

This week
marks the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Liberal-NDP Accord in
Ontario. The election in early May of 1985 had elected a minority
parliament, with the Conservatives at 50, the Liberals at 45 and the NDP
at 25. The vote split was roughly 37/37/25.
...

No We Can't

Montreal Simon: Ignatieff and the Coalition that Won't Die

Michael Ignatieff had a chance to do the right thing, and stand up for the rights of poor Canadians, women, and children.

But instead he sold us all out. He'll blow Stephen Harper and "swallow hard" for the price of a meaningless amendment
...

He didn't even have the
guts or the decency to ask for changes to Employment Insurance, so many
more Canadians could be eligible for benefits, instead of being driven
into poverty and misery. Now there are two Conservative Parties in Canada: Harper's LibCons, and Ignatieff's ConLibs.

Jack Layton is now the real leader of the Opposition

James Laxer: Jack Layton Is Now The Real Leader of the Opposition: Ignatieff Plays Hamlet

Meanwhile, Jack Layton has become the real leader of the opposition. He showed courage when he reached out to the Liberals to form a progressive coalition that could provide Canadians with the leadership they need to cope with the economic crisis. He tried the option of working with the Liberals. Michael Ignatieff has walked away from that option. Layton has retained his integrity and his clear understanding of what the country needs. Progressives now have one party and one party only available to them: the NDP.

Why the Coalition should topple the Cons

Montreal Simon: Why the Coalition Should Topple the Cons < read the whole post.

It spews money in every direction to try to buy votes. It depends too much on shared funding from cash-strapped municipalities, its tax cuts are peanuts that will cost us dearly later on. It does almost nothing to encourage a greener economy. And it continues this foul Con government's war on Canadian women, with nothing for childcare spaces, and an assault on pay equity.

But its most catastrophic
omission is that it it fails to adequately reform the Employment
Insurance system and prepare it to cope with the enormous tide of human
misery that could be coming its way. Because as I pointed out yesterday
EI in Canada these days is completely inadequate.

Cuts
in the early 1990s mean barely half of the country's unemployed today –
and fewer than a quarter in Toronto – are eligible for benefits. Those
lucky enough to qualify often get far less than poverty-level incomes.
And for almost everyone scrambling to find work as the economy
crumbles, benefits run out too soon.

And
if more people don't become eligible, and benefits are increased,
millions of Canadians could be forced into lives of grinding poverty,
welfare rolls could swell, and our whole safety net could collapse.
















But its most catastrophic omission is that it it fails to adequately reform the Employment Insurance system and prepare it to cope with the enormous tide of human misery that could be coming its way. Because as I pointed out yesterday EI in Canada these days is completely inadequate.

Cuts in the early 1990s mean barely half of the country's unemployed today – and fewer than a quarter in Toronto – are eligible for benefits. Those lucky enough to qualify often get far less than poverty-level incomes. And for almost everyone scrambling to find work as the economy crumbles, benefits run out too soon.

And if more people don't become eligible, and benefits are increased, millions of Canadians could be forced into lives of grinding poverty, welfare rolls could swell, and our whole safety net could collapse.

This budget won't lead Canada out of a recession...

James Laxer: This Budget Won’t Lead Canada Out of Recession: Ignatieff Should Defeat It

Depending on how you interpret the budget, the government is committing itself to direct new spending of about $10 billion to $12 billion, on infrastructure and housing, over the next two years. Some of this depends on matching provincial and municipal funds, which may never materialize. Much of it depends on how much the government actually spends, a crucial matter since the Harper government has left most of the previous infrastructure money it promised in earlier budgets unspent. At most, the new direct spending by the government amounts to about $6 billion a year.

These numbers may sound big. In fact, they are puny. The Canadian Gross Domestic Product totals about $1.5 trillion a year. Six billion dollars a year amounts to just over one half of one per cent of our country’s GDP. Economic announcements and forecasts tell us that Canada is on track to lose hundreds of thousands of jobs over the next six months. The Conservative government’s planned spending would create, at most, about sixty thousand short-term jobs.

The various tax measures in the budget will be equally ineffectual in stimulating the economy.

Is a government elected based on deception legitimate?

Danielle Takacs: Galloping Around the Golden Horseshoe: Is a Government Elected Based on Deception Legitimate? < read me for the whole post.

Excerpts:

I’ve seen a lot of talk about how a Liberal-NDP coalition would lack legitimacy in the eyes of the public, but I think an honest look of the whole picture should ask as well is what kind of legitimacy does Stephen Harper have? In the real world if you applied for a job based on a falsified resume and the people that hired you found this out, you’d be fired in an instant. And the company probably wouldn’t start a whole new job search, they’d probably go to their next choice of applicant and ask if he/she was still available to take on the job.
While politics isn’t the business world, since Stephen Harper used the
CEO metaphor in a very stretched attempt to frame the Liberal platform
as irresponsible (he said if Stéphane Dion were a CEO he would be fired
for his platform), I’d like to run with it for a minute to lay the
stage for the context we face this week in Parliament. Let’s say
Stephen Harper was made CEO of a major Canadian company in January of
2006 but at least in theory remained accountable to a board of
directors (MPs) and occasionally shareholders (the electorate). So he
starts off making some bizarre and costly decisions that sap up a good
portion of the company’s revenue arguing that “target markets” will
love it and that profits (surplus) remain high anyways so there’s no
reason for the board to worry. Besides Harper says “who needs profits,
that just means we are over-charging consumers”. And so this continues
for a couple years and while many on the board grumbled that he was
driving the company into a ditch as profits were finally starting to
steadily decline in 2008, they were comforted that he would face a
review by shareholders. When the shareholder review came Harper spends
most of his presentation railing against his main competitor to replace
him as CEO arguing that he’s proposing all sorts of crazy schemes and
that while the other guy would ruin the company, Harper would bring
large profits and continued success. So Harper wins the review and
carries on. However, his first major act following the review is to
propose to cut the salaries of all the majority of board members that
he deemed disloyal. The majority of the board finally revolts but then
Harper cancels all board meetings for 7 weeks and vows to come back
with a real plan this time to rescue the company and at that time the
board can vote on whether he gets to continue as CEO. Right after he
cancels the board meeting Harper pronounces that the profits he said
the company was going to have won’t pan out after all, instead the
company is billions in the red, but he hopes the board can forgive that
oversight because “no one could see it coming” (despite the many
warnings Harper received BEFORE his review). So in that situation what
should the board do when they have their vote of confidence?
...
But I do believe we’ve once again seen a cover-up of the deficit by
some of the same people that did it in Ontario and we can’t let that
slide easily. My honest belief is that Stephen Harper went into the
election knowing the books were a mess and hoped he would get a
majority so that the public would never find out and he could just
cover it up like the Ontario PC’s did. He had access to civil service
forecasts none of the oppositions parties did, I’m sure he knew more
than he let on. Yet he portrayed an image that the Canadian economy and
government finances were in sound shape when literally days after the
election he was singing the opposite tune. For that I feel this was a
government elected based on deception and since Harper wasn’t given the
majority he wanted, it’s the duty of the majority of the House of
Commons to hold him to account. It’s the duty of Stephen Harper to do
everything he can to ensure he enjoys the confidence of a majority of
MPs the public elected and so far he’s done the opposite of what’s
necessary to do that.

Wording of the poll

JanfromtheBruce: Tyee - Better a dead coalition than a live Harper government

Reading over the actual wording of the question, it appears that one is being asked if one prefers an Liberal led government over a Harper led government, as it does not mention the word "coalition".

Coalition steadily gaining in the polls

Far and Wide: Coalition Supporters, Here's Your Poll

Polls conducted late last year showed a high level of opposition, especially outside Quebec, to a proposed Liberal-NDP coalition in the event the minority Harper government is defeated in the House. The new poll suggests Canadians' feelings have evolved, with 50 per cent of respondents favouring a coalition government, while 43 per cent are happier with the current Conservative government.

“This is a huge change from the period right after the coalition agreement was struck in Stéphane Dion's last days as Liberal leader, when the Tories took an apparently unassailable 20-point lead,” Mr. Graves said. “Clearly much of the recoil against the idea of a coalition really had to do with alarm at the idea of Stéphane Dion becoming prime minister so quickly after having been rejected so decisively at the polls.”

Bullshitting the Canadian public

The Galloping Beaver: Steve's CTV Christmas Special < read me!

Dear Steve :
Allow me to quote from the Coalition's Accord, signed by the three opposition party leaders including Gilles Duceppe on Dec 1:

"The [Coalition] Government will not request a dissolution of Parliament during the term of this agreement, except following defeat on an explicitly-framed motion of nonconfidence presented by the Opposition ...[that would be you, Steve]... or any vote pertaining to the speech from the throne; or on a budget vote at on any stage in the House; or on any bill to implement a budget at any stage in the House; or on any motion in the House to concur in, restore or reinstate any Estimates; or on any supply bill at any stage in the House.

The Bloc Québécois will neither move nor will it support any motions of nonconfidence in the Government during the term of its support for this agreement, and will vote in favour of the Government’s position with respect to all matters referred to in the immediately preceding paragraph."


Could that be any clearer? The agreement actually binds the Bloc to vote with the coalition on all matters of confidence and to support all budgets, throne speeches and money bills.

Steve knows this of course, but he went on Corporate Television Vehicle™ and bullshitted the Canadian public about it four distinct times in five minutes anyway. Fucking appalling. And neither of the two hosts, Lloyd Robertson nor Robert Fife, called him on it.

How is BQ veto fo a LIb-NDP coalition possible?

The Rational Number: How is BQ veto of a Lib-NDP coalition possible? < read me.

Only the partisan assumption that the Conservatives would vote against the Lib-NDP coalition consistently without regard to the matter of the vote holds up the argument of a BQ veto. Of course everything depends on the subject matter of the vote, but that nevers appears in those Conservative-minded talking points.

Who's afraid of the big bad Bloc?

Bill Longstaff: Who's afraid of the big bad Bloc?

There is little for progressives to fear from the Bloc Quebecois as supporters of the coalition on confidence votes. The Conservatives got their support in the last Parliament, and if there's no coalition, they may very well be seeking it in this one. Nothing new here.

Click the link, read the post.

Let's hope the coalition continues

Accidental Deliberations: On best-case scenarios

After all, the coalition also reflects the best chance in the near future to demonstrate the viability of cooperative politics.

Maude Barlow: Harper has to go

Canadian Dimension Blog / Maude Barlow: Harper has to go

“For the good of the people of Canada, for the dignity and good and
workings of the House of Commons, he must step down and allow the
coalition to come into power”

Coalition - grassroots organization

Creekside: Dear leaders of the coalition : Obama-size now

It's time you guys put together an official coalition website and Impolitical has your front page image right here.

What we need from you now is an official source for quotes, breaking news and coalition events to counteract the Corporate Television Vehicle™ which will reliably continue to pump out every rumour and screw-up in the coalition because that's what they do.

Yes,
you have your own party websites but Canadians need to be convinced
this is more than party politics as usual. Yes, there's lots of grassroots groups doing this already but we need to see you to stand behind it.

Build
it and the press will come. There's economists and constitutional
experts writing interesting articles about the coalition every day.
Publish them. We need pledge drives for when Steve goes for another
election do-over. We need dates for the coalition townhalls you better
be planning to have in your districts.

Conservatives Exposed

A BCer in Toronto: (Video) Don Newman schools John Baird

John Baird has been a member of parilament for years, provincially and federally, and he exposes the fact that he does not know how parliament or our democratic system works. He also contradicts himself in statements about the Bloc (if the Bloc supports the opposition, then the opposition stance is evil and anti-Canadian, but if the Bloc supports the Conservatives, they are Canadian).

"Coalition government better for environment" - Sierra Club

World Report: "Coalition government better for environment, says Sierra Club," Greenpages.ca, December 3, 2008.

December 3, 2008 - A Liberal-New Democratic Party coalition government would be better for Canada's natural environment, says Sierra Club Canada.

Peterborough Politics on the Editorial from the Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal

Peterborough Politics: I Couldn't Agree More

The fact is that Canadians are suffering, and the Conservatives are looking out for their own cushy cabinet posts. I'm not surprised by the Chronicle-Journal stating that they have received more letters of support for the coalition than against it because Canadians are the kind of people that usually look to work together. And that's precisely what this coalition is about, putting aside differences and working together. But instead of lauding that, the Conservatives tried to turn the good characteristics of cooperating and working together into some kind of deep seeded, anti-Canadian character flaw.

Bringing down the Harper government - for the good of Canada

Bringing down the Harper government… « Verbena-19

This poignant piece
written by Political Science professor James Laxer is in Straight
Goods, Saturday, Dec. 6th.  Laxer’s sage advice is intended for
Liberals and the NDP. But all Canadians, especially those who are
brainwashed by the Harper government into believing that the coalition
is bad for our country — and that Harper’s is the only ‘legitimate’
government — should also pay attention.

...

This is it guys.

If the opposition fails to defeat the government and install a new one, Harper will exercise complete control for the next couple of years. The opposition parties will be stuck with Flaherty’s budget at the end of January, which is virtually certain to fall short of what the country needs in terms of economic stimulus. Do they really want to place the fate of Canadians in the hands of a man whose first plan for coping with the economic crisis included selling the CN Tower?

...

Harper is a neo-conservative ideologue, obsessed with power and his own
sense of self importance. He is contemptuous of Canada and a stalwart member of neo-con right-wing groups, closely linked to their U.S. counterparts.
This group’s insidious agenda is not what most Canadians envision for
our country. Conservative Canadians who believe that Harper’s party
represents them and the country have been duped by his relentless
divisive propaganda aided and abetted by the cowed media and pundits.
If these Canadians remove their blinders, they will see the ‘real’
Stephen Harper and get a glimpse of what he has in store for us in the
coming year. They will see that Harper’s plans for the direction of our
country are far different from that of mainstream Canadians, regardless
of where we stand on the political spectrum.. It is imperative that
Canadians of all political persuasion unite for the good of our country.

Jack Layton Speaks on democracy and the coalition at the Ottawa rally.

The Z-Files: NDP must lead fight to restore democracy

Watch the video

Canadians may find themselves nostalgic for what the Coalition wanted to do

Over the longer term, I wouldn't be surprised if the Canadian public found itself nostalgic for what the coalition wanted to do. They had some terrific ideas:

We'll protect good jobs by supporting key industry sectors. The auto sector will get credit guarantees and low-interest loans, tied to producing low-emission vehicles Canadians want. Forestry companies with good business plans and a viable future will qualify for credit guarantees.
We'll create jobs straight away. Ready-to-go infrastructure projects will be fast-tracked. Retrofitting homes and building affordable housing can begin right away. Then there are jobs in renewable energy and expanded public transit.
We'll invest in families through EI reform, skills training and help for older workers moving to retirement. And we'll help seniors through pension protection, reform to mandatory RRIF withdrawals and increased Old Age Security.
We'll work closely with the new Obama administration on fighting climate change with a cap-and-trade system. And we'll work for fairer trade to make sure there are healthy markets for Canadian goods.

Compare these to the Conservative brain trust, who wanted to abandon pay equity and break the civil service unions. What century are these guys living in? Even in Harper's speech last night, he seemed to think that indirect measures like "injecting liquidity into financial markets" and reducing taxes and "undertaking due diligence on any further requests for assistance from the auto industry" would be sufficient.
The sad fact is that the Conservatives just do not know what they are doing with the economy. Harper won't have the flexibility to just steal some of the coalition's ideas -- his usual ideological filter would label these ideas as just too "socialist" -- and he doesn't have any ideas of his own, just slogans and name-calling.
Sigh.