A week has come and gone, and despite all of huff and puff going down in Ottawa, we’re not going to have an election.
Just in case you spent your student loan on a vacation to the Bahamas while prices were cheap and have missed the past week in Canada, the Conservative Government put forward a ways and means motion to overhaul the existing Employment Insurance program in place, extending much needed support to people who have lost their jobs during the recession.
The controversy surrounding this motion has come primarily from the Liberals who have decided that after supporting the Conservatives on every motion put forth in Parliament over the past 27 votes, they no longer have faith in the ruling party. A move which would have sent Canadians to the polls for the second time in as many years, had it not been for the NDP and the Blod Quebecois.
This is an interesting play by Michael Ignatieff and the Liberal party, considering the timing and status of our economy. On one hand it seems as if he is taking a stand to try and distance himself from Stephen Harper and the Conservatives, where, under Ignatieff’s leadership, the Liberals have been painted as sharing the same republican-type values.
On the other hand, it also seems like an underhanded attempt to foil the reputation of the NDP and Bloc, all while trying to show people that the Liberals are the only “true” opposition party.
Where the Liberals are lucky is fan-base (It sounds funny because if that were true, they would have won in the previous election,) but having their leader make the case that they have had enough of the current regime, really gets the gossip wheel turning and gets Candians talking. By Ignatieff saying that the Liberals would not support any motion coming from the Conservatives it's going to put a lot of weight on the NDP and Bloc Quebecois to keep making compromises to stop Canadians from facing another election. Over time, after more and more motions are backed and passed thanks to support from the NDP and Bloc, the roles will reverse, and the two parties will start to look like they are in bed with the Conservatives, instead of the Liberals.
That’s Iggy playing the game like the intellectual he is. He knows that after some time, something’s going to have to give, and an election will happen. By that time, the general public will be (presumably) be tired of the Conservatives and assume that the NDP aren’t as socialist as they first thought, handing their vote over to the Liberals.
Considering reforming EI has been something the NDP have been fighting for a long time now, since before the recession began. The Conservatives knew they had to appeal to the leftists in order to avoid an election that would have undoubtedly decided another minority government, whether it be Liberal or Conservative, and would have just pissed Canadians off.
It’s an interesting time in Canadian politics, one that is seemingly moving more and more towards a coalition-type existence, where everybody gets a chance to bring something to the table. Whether it keeps happening or not remains to be seen, but I hope it does for everyone’s sake.
In other exciting news, while in a press conference on his visit to the White House, Stephen Harper was questioned about Canadian health care and whether he had any words to say to the American public. And in true Harper style, he made the comment that universal health care in the US was “…an international issue” and he would not be commenting on it. Missing the perfect opportunity to back Barrack Obama in public, and help him out to try and win over the American population on this, such a controversial issue down there. – It should be noted that one of Harper’s former jobs before becoming Prime Minister was to lobby against universal health care in Canada.
No comments:
Post a Comment