"Incidentally, Dion should not have entered into the coalition - it was not something his party was really behind"
The only alternative to the coalition would have been for the Liberals to have voted in favour of the economic statement, including the end of subsidies to the parties - which in turn would have caused the Liberal party to immediately file for bankruptcy protection.
Never mind, Stockholm, they can always do that after the next election when Harper brings that proposal back again. Goofs.
"Incidentally, Dion should not have entered into the coalition - it was not something his party was really behind"
The only alternative to the coalition would have been for the Liberals to have voted in favour of the economic statement, including the end of subsidies to the parties - which in turn would have caused the Liberal party to immediately file for bankruptcy protection.
No it wasn't the only alternative - the 3 opposition parties could have just said they were going to vote against it without the need to rush into a coalition. Harper faced a lot of heat over provoking that crisis and he backed off and agreed to remove it from the economic statement and he was dropping in the polls.
As Andrew Coyne explained on the final At Issue panel at the end of June, what the opposition parties did by rushing into the coalition was to turn the heat on themselves and take it off the Conservatives.
The opposition parties were not prepared for the PR war, which we have to admit the Conservatives won. Canadians viewed the coalition as trying to overturn the results of the election because the opposition parties forgot that Canadians are not used to coalition governments like they are in Europe and the Conservatives exploited that.
Quebecers were on side which was good, but the rest of the country was not. You also have to remember that it would have caused an uproar in Western Canada and harmed national unity and would have damaged Liberal and NDP prospects in Western Canada for years to come. Doesn't that matter to some people here?
We have to be objective and look at both the positives and negatives of the coalition and I get the sense that some here viewed it as entirely positive and wanted to leap first and look later.
The opposition parties were not prepared for the PR war, which we have to admit the Conservatives won.
The Conservatives 'won' because they went unchallenged - and they went unchallenged because the coup was supported by the PTB within the Liberal Party. These same backroom powerbrokers had already decided that Dion was finished, and they were not going to allow him a chance to redeem himself.
And as we see now, in one of the latest polls on majority/minority govts and so on, voters have warmed up to a liberal/NDP coalition govt. That's 45% for and 42% against.
Too bad the Brains in the liberal party didn't bother to fight for a coalition govt, instead of wanting the whole prize for themselves. Perhaps, they were too scared that the Canadian people would "really, really like this coalition" and realize that the liberals aren't the end all and the only alternative. To me, that was what it was really about - so they could continue to pretend they are on the left and the only alternative.
They knew by sharing power with the NDP that in the long run, their days would be numbered. Canadians lose.
So any bets on who the Libs and Cons are going to run?
Please continue in a new thread. Closing for length.
