Coalition goverments are 100% legit!

Woo I love election season but I guess I’m the only one. In case you heard otherwise (how could you not…), I wanted to mention that coalition governments are a legitimate option despite what Mr. Harper says. In fact all minority governments (his included) are coalition as the governing party requires the help of one of the opposition parties to pass confidence motions. The party that wins the most seats has the first opportunity to set up a government however should they fail to reach a majority consensus in the house of commons, it’s perfectly in the right of the runner up to try and gain the confidence of the house.

Mr. Harper tried this in 2004 when then Paul Martin’s Liberal minority was on the verge of collapse, that and he was in support of this ideal well before that time too. The Toronto Star (which frankly is very left leaning yes) has a good piece on Mr. Harper’s coalition argument and these are just the facts…

Stephen Harper, in a 1997 TV interview: “The way the Liberals, I think, are eventually going to lose office, whether it’s in this election or the next one, is they’re going to fail to win a majority . . . . But what will be the test is whether there is then any party in opposition that’s able to form a coalition or working alliance with the others. And I think we have a political system that’s going to continue to have three or four different parties or five different parties, and so I think parties that want to form a government are eventually going to have to learn to work together.”

Sigh when I ask my coworkers about their thoughts on a coalition government, it’s sad that the negative attack style political ads are working… As Canadians you have a responsibility to educate yourself about our parliamentary government and political parties. Look past all the party/media spin and see what these people stand for.

I’ll be frank myself, I do not like the current brand of Conservatives as they conflict almost 100% with my political beliefs. They’re social conservatives (I’m pro choice, for gay marriage, am against the death penalty, etc) but spend like drunken sailors and this is an important thing to remember, Mr. Harper’s minority government was already in deficit before the 2008 market crash! I could go on and on about what I think went wrong in the last few years but lol I have to work.

It’s a shame, as a Liberal supporter I do not like Mr. Ignatieff either I wish he would make a stand on something and stick by it. Mr. Harper to give credit where credit is due, is head and shoulders the best player of politics of all the leaders. He knows the game well…

This is not an April fools joke either.

Lie of the year

So if you frequent my blog I’m sure you’ll know that I like politics and American politics is just so much more interesting than what happens up here in Canada.  Anyway I was reading up on PolitiFact’s 2010 Lie of The Year and it’s the phrase that Republicans love to use “Government takeover of health care”.  Anyone who’s truly followed Health Care reform in the US knows that there is absolutely no government take over of health care at all.  In fact the public option (which was pushed early on) was removed and health care in the US is still for profit, there are just more rules so health insurers can’t milk the American people like they use to (well not as much anyway).

In the spring of 2009, a Republican strategist settled on a brilliant and powerful attack line for President Barack Obama’s ambitious plan to overhaul America’s health insurance system. Frank Luntz, a consultant famous for his phraseology, urged GOP leaders to call it a “government takeover.”

“Takeovers are like coups,” Luntz wrote in a 28-page memo. “They both lead to dictators and a loss of freedom.”

The line stuck. By the time the health care bill was headed toward passage in early 2010, Obama and congressional Democrats had sanded down their program, dropping the “public option” concept that was derided as too much government intrusion. The law passed in March, with new regulations, but no government-run plan.

If you’re an American it’s a good read, too bad Government take over will not go away as easily as the stupid Death Panels thing, which happened to be 2009′s lie of the year…

PolitiFact is a non partisan organization and won a Pulitzer prize in 2009.  Oh I particularly enjoyed the “Pants on Fire” portion of the site, it’s certainly very entertaining and would be funny if it weren’t so sad that this is what the political elite is spewing to the US electorate.

So much for progress…

American politics is so much more interesting than what we have here in Canada and as an outside observer I have to say, it appears that Americans are nuts.  I know it’s not nice to say but what the heck is wrong with the American public, boy those guys down there really have a short memory!  Politically I’m all over the place, my social views are quite liberal however fiscally I am conservative. It’s definitely clear that while the Republicans like to talk about smaller government, lower taxes and fiscal responsibility when the GOP have power, it does the absolute opposite!

Does the public not forget who got the world into the last recession?  While a small portion of the blame can be laid at Bill Clinton’s feet, the policies that created the housing/credit crisis was greatly accelerated under W’s terms!  A lot of Tea Party members like to talk about the constitution and stuff but they obviously have forgotten about all the freedoms that they lost under W’s watch too.  Considering that banking and insurance stock prices increased when it was clear the Repubs would win Congress, doesn’t that tell the US people something is wrong? Seriously?!?  Um also without the Iraq & Afghanistan wars the US federal deficit would be about $1 trillion less eh.  Ya fiscal change is going to happen when you send the same Republican leadership back to office that got the world into this mess.

Another thing that irks me is hearing about how President Obama has not focused enough attention on the economy, so in a free market system how exactly is the President suppose to help create jobs?  Oh that’s right, he can’t directly he can only ease fiscal policy and hope business do the rest.  Ya the same businesses which ship the high quality skilled jobs overseas and could care less about the American people.  Let’s see it’s been just 2 years since the worst recession ever and Americans want things to be fixed immediately.  2 years to fix the mess it took the last 8 years to create, right…  Reminds me of when there was “outrage” that President Obama didn’t fix the Gulf spill, perhaps he should have just put on a wet suit, grabbed a wrench and closed the leak himself.

Lastly, when has being an intellectual become a bad thing.  Yeah the last thing we want is for smart people to run the country, let’s get a red neck back into power.  How about the nutty Sarah Palin, who’s quit every political position she’s ever held…  Yeah that’s exactly the type of person the US needs.

Absolutely ridiculous, well America (and Canada we’re really no better) you deserve what you get.  It’s a scary world out there better go grab your gun, bible and pray.

A shift to the right

So Torontoians elected Rob Ford to be its mayor and it’s going to be an interesting 4 years.  Will Mr. Ford be able as he says it “stop the gravy train” and reduce spending at city hall?  I guess we’ll see now won’t we.  It’s a shame more people didn’t vote, turn out as usual for municipal elections suck.  Well as I always tell my friends, if you don’t vote you don’t have a right to bitch about policies because you didn’t make yourself heard.  Heh yeah I know I live in Thornhill but politics up here is even more boring so I need something to talk about.

The Government we deserve

As a Canadian I am appalled at Prime Minster Stephen Harper is proroguing the federal government yet again for its own political advantage.  Just when the the committee on Afghan abuse can do some work they put a stop to everything.  They wouldn’t want the truth of the matter to come out now, after all according to the Conservatives claim they knew nothing before 2007 even though a diplomat blew the whistle and Canada’s top general admitted it happened as well.

THE timing said everything. Stephen Harper, the prime minister, chose December 30th, the day five Canadians were killed in Afghanistan and when the public and the media were further distracted by the announcement of the country’s all-important Olympic ice-hockey team, to let his spokesman reveal that Parliament would remain closed until March 3rd, instead of returning as usual, after its Christmas break, in the last week of January.
Source: The Economist

Is it just me or does it feel like the PM is trying to sneak prorogation through? Sigh unfortunately Canadians have a very short political memory and we truly deserve the government that we have…  If we paid a bit more attention we’d see that the so called Conservatives representing us are the same extreme Reform party of the 90s.  Oh PM, btw how goes Senate reform?  Yeah that’ll happen soon…

It stinks!

So things are starting to falling apart for the Conservatives when it comes to torture.  Burning the messenger only works when you’re telling the truth and it’s obvious that “Canada’s new government” knew what was going on right from the beginning…

While details of the meeting are secret, enough was said about Afghanistan to generate a report from MacKay’s office a month later that flagged the Red Cross president’s concerns.

The contents of the report, one of thousands of documents filed in the Military Police Complaints Commission investigation of torture allegations, are censored.

The email was titled: “Re: meeting with ICRC president re detention issues.”

The Conservative government has insisted it never received direct warnings about possible Afghan torture of Canadian-transferred prisoners, although MacKay has conceded that general concerns were heard almost from the moment the government took office in early 2006.
Source: The Star

So they knew, that type of thing is bound to happen in that part of the world.  Do your best to make sure it doesn’t happen and move on right.  Instead according to the Conservative playbook, you deny and obstruct anything (like the inquiry which is looking into these claims) which may lead to the truth.  Now there are rumors that the PM may prorogue the Government yet again in an effort to sweep this under the rug.

Is it any surprise?

Sorry for being late to the game but is anyone really surprised that torture occurs in a third world country like Afghanistan? Obviously it’s not right but for me what sucks even more is when the government of Canada drag its own diplomats through the mud in an effort to discredit him.  Of course this is standard policy for the Conservatives, anyone who does not toe the party line or believe what they believe gets character assassination.  People like Mr. Colvin do not get plum assignments like being in the city of Washington DC because they’re stupid, he obviously was once valuable for the boys to reward him.  Instead what Mr. Harper and his chronies should do is admit to it because hey shit happens and then chart a way to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

People are a lot more understanding if you admit to error and apologizes but denials (especially when the top Canadian military commander says torture has happened) only make things worse.  Meh I don’t like the Conservatives anyway so I’m happy to see them in this predicament, too bad the other political parties are so inept that they can’t capitalize on this folly.