American Republican-style Stephen Harper is forced to blink in high stakes showdown with the Liberals, NDP, and Bloc Quebecois. Is a possible rebellion within the Conservative Party of Canada looming against Stephen Harper's smug, arrogant, uncompromising, uncooperative, rigidly ideological, right-wing dogmatic, megalomaniac leadership?
fraeoldb...@gmail.com
PROTESTANT,
TOO MALE, TOO AMERICANIZED, TOO ALBERTA-CENTRIC TO EVER WIN A MAJORITY
GOVERMENT OUT OF VOTE RICH, SOCIALLY LIBERAL, ECONOMICALLY
PROGRESSIVE,
ENVIRONMENTALLY AWARE, COSMOPOLITAN, DIVERSE, GLOBALIZED, MULTI-
RACIAL,
MULTI-ETHNIC, MULTI-LINGUAL, MULTI-RELIGIOUS, MULTI-CULTURAL ONTARIO
AND QUEBEC.
Tories blink first in showdown
Nov 30, 2008 04:30 AM
Les Whittington
Tonda MacCharles
Bruce Campion-Smith
Ottawa Bureau
OTTAWA—An unexpected climbdown by Prime Minister Stephen Harper on a
key element of his explosive economic package is unlikely to halt the
opposition’s joint effort to oust the minority Conservative
government.
In a stunning about-face, Transportation Minister John Baird went on
television yesterday afternoon to announce the Harper government would
reverse its controversial proposal to strip political parties of
federal subsidies.
"It's not worth going to an election over," Baird said on CTV,
referring to the subsidies. "We'll leave that political debate for
another day."
And there were hints there could be further retreats in store. A
Conservative official said the government "will put more water into
their wine" when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty makes an announcement
today in Toronto, The Canadian Press reported. But the official said
the announcement will not include any new economic stimulus.
The plan to axe subsidies was one of several elements of a
Conservative economic package that have the Liberals, New Democrats
and Bloc Québécois poised to vote down the Conservatives and replace
them with a coalition government.
Late yesterday, the Liberals and NDP said the Conservatives' flip-flop
on political party subsidies is not enough to keep the Harper
government from being voted down at the first opportunity in the
Commons.
Sources told the Star last night that high-level talks are afoot to
choose someone other than departing Liberal leader Stéphane Dion as
the interim leader of a coalition government. One prominent name being
mentioned is former Liberal finance minister Ralph Goodale.
"It can't be Dion because Canadians so massively rejected him," said
one senior Ontario Liberal.
Meanwhile, Conservative MPs are on "high alert for a return to
campaign mode," even as they launch an all-out media blitz to
discredit the possibility of a Liberal-NDP coalition government,
attacking the idea as an "insult to democracy."
A memo from Harper’s office, obtained by the Star, instructs MPs to
take to their local airwaves and have supporters call in to talk
radio.
But opposition MPs are accusing the Prime Minister of hypocrisy,
charging that Harper is overlooking his own efforts to forge a
coalition to replace Paul Martin’s minority Liberal government in
2004.
Harper, then Conservative leader, even joined with NDP Leader Jack
Layton and Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe to write then-governor
general Adrienne Clarkson, urging her to look at "options" if Martin's
government fell in the fall of 2004, mere months after it won a
minority mandate on June 28.
"We respectfully point out that the opposition parties, who together
constitute a majority in the House, have been in close consultation,"
read the Sept. 9, 2004, letter from the three leaders.
"We believe that, should a request for dissolution arise this should
give you cause, as constitutional practice has determined, to consult
the opposition leaders and consider all of your options before
exercising your constitutional authority."
That message is in stark contrast to the one Harper delivered Friday
night, when he charged that Liberals don't "have the right to take
power without an election."
"The opposition has been working on a backroom deal to overturn the
results of the last election without seeking the consent of voters.
They want to take power, not earn it," he said in a statement.
Now Conservative MPs are being instructed to take that message to
Canadians.
The scripts were sent out to caucus members, along with clear
instructions from Harper's chief of staff, Guy Giorno, on the key
messages and how best to deliver them.
"While our preference would be for the opposition to respect our clear
mandate and allow speedy passage of the legislation accompanying the
fiscal update, we are nonetheless prepared to return to the polls over
this issue," Giorno said.
Angered by Thursday's economic statement that delivered no financial
boost to Canada's ailing economy — but served up provocative measures
such as cutting political party subsidies, curbing public servants'
right to strike and modifying pay equity rules — the NDP, Liberals and
Bloc have united in opposition.
Both the Liberals and NDP said last night their main objection to the
Tories' economic policies is the lack of measures to jump-start the
struggling economy — not the political subsidies issue the
Conservatives backed down on.
"To paraphrase Bill Clinton, it's the economy, stupid," John McCallum,
a Liberal spokesperson, said after Baird’s announcement. "If the
government still doesn't understand, if they think this is going to
get them off the hook, they’re missing the point."
NDP spokesperson Brad Lavigne said: "This changes nothing because for
the New Democrats, it was never about public financing."
The opposition has accused Flaherty of failing to understand the
severity of the economic crisis facing Canadian businesses and
workers. Harper said earlier this month that Canada needs
unprecedented stimulus in the form of new government spending or tax
cuts to pump up the economy.
But Flaherty, despite acknowledging the economy is in recession, said
Thursday that Canadians would have to wait until he delivers a full-
scale budget next year to see what new actions the Conservatives think
are needed to stimulate the economy.
Since Thursday, the Harper government had said it had no intention of
backing down on its plan to scrap the $30 million in annual subsidies
for federal parties.
But, in an interview on CTV yesterday, Baird said that measure would
be dropped from the legislation to implement the policies announced in
the economic statement.
MPs will vote on the legislation early next month and its defeat would
topple the government, leading to a snap election or a move by the
opposition parties to take power with a coalition.
The Liberals had threatened to topple the Conservatives in a
confidence vote tomorrow, with the hope of eventually replacing them
with a coalition. That forced Harper to announce late Friday that he
was delaying all votes that could defeat his government until Dec. 8.
Opposition parties continued to talk yesterday to hammer out details
around a possible coalition government.
The New Democrats held a special caucus meeting to brief MPs on
developments and seek their input. Eleven of the MPs were in Ottawa,
the rest participated by phone.
New Democrat MP Libby Davies (Vancouver East) said "progress is being
made" as discussions centre on common points of policy.
On the Liberal side, an official said that representatives of the
parties were in discussions and that talks were "going well."
Around the country, many Conservatives were furious that Harper's
inner circle had failed to consult more widely before delivering the
fiscal update.
One senior Conservative said Harper had shot himself in the foot for
ideological reasons — much as he did when he announced $45 million in
arts funding cuts last summer, which cost his party seats in Quebec in
the Oct. 14 federal election.
"These guys think it's campus politics, so they get too cute by half
and then f--- everything up," he said.
"We're in the middle of an economic crisis and they pull a stunt like
this?"
GaryRock
<fraeoldb...@gmail.com> wrote in message
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