This House ain't Common

These are some crazy times on Parliament Hill.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has apparently lost the confidence of the House of Commons, but was saved the embarrassment of an upcoming non-confidence vote by Governor General Michaelle Jean, who today prorogued Parliament until Jan. 26.

Hands up if you had heard of proroguing before this week? OK, now put your hands down if you're lying ... that's what I thought — nobody.

So Mr. Harper has clung to his minority government for the time being, but as I watched his prime-time TV plea to Canadians last night, I couldn't help but think that our fearless leader is missing the point — by a really, really long shot.

Instead of commenting about how his government plans to save our economy and regain the trust of both the House and of Canadians, he continued to tell outright lies about the Liberals and New Democratic Party's coalition. He continued to say this is a coalition that includes the separatist Bloc Quebecois, when that has no basis in fact — the Bloc has only agreed to support the coalition in confidence votes like budgets and the Throne Speech. They get no special powers, or Cabinet seats, and its influence stays the exact same under a coalition government.

So, instead of addressing the issues, our Prime Minister continued to lie to us, to put the fear into us about the coalition splitting the country down the middle, and to continue being a bully.

He just used a really nice tone of voice.

And it was oh so George W. Bushian. Good government vs. evil (fill in the blank).

Personally, not being a Conservative (wait, you could tell?) but also not being sure a coalition is the proper way to fix this country and economy, especially with Stephane Dion at the helm, I was looking for some leadership from the Prime Minister. Some guidance. Some assurance that he's learned his lesson and he won't try to play politics (say, by removing the funding for his competitors instead of offering concrete economic goals) when what our economy really needs is about 10,000 volts of stimulation.

I know the Bloc are separatists, and I wasn't pissed off about it when the Conservatives used the Bloc's support to get things accomplished in the past, so I don't care now.

What I do care about is our Prime Minister using smoke and mirrors to save his tail when he should be thinking about the good of the country. Sir, you already have the Alberta vote, so why even bother to demonize the Bloc, because the east knows better?

As an aside, it was a stroke of brilliance by the Liberals last night, when they 'delayed' (I assume intentionally) the delivery of the tape of Mr. Dion's rebuttal to the TV networks so the political correspondents could rip every single point Mr. Harper made to shreds because they had unexpected dead air to fill. The PM got away with nothing because of it.

But then the tape started rolling and I couldn't believe it. Dion was completely out of focus, while the bookshelf in the background was pin-sharp. His cameraman didn't set the focus properly — something that anyone who has more intelligence than a monkey can do.

And this was supposed to endear him to a public that is already leery (times 1,000) of him becoming Prime Minister?

The government is a mess, and it looks like it's going to stay that way until at least Jan. 26.

But, for once, Canadian politics are actually worth following.

Comments

[Wally Keeler]

Jack Layton received jack-all from the Canadian electorate to even be leader of the opposition, let alone PM. I trust the will and wisdom of the Cdn people who have consistently placed the leadership of the NDP on the margins of power.

[Alex S]

But honestly though, do you really think that even if Harper tried to work with the NDP,Bloq,or Liberals that we'd be anywhere closer to a solution for the economy than we are now? I've heard that this coalition was in the planning stages as soon as the votes were tallied. I voted conservative, after living under a liberal government for the majourity of my life, and I'd like my vote to count for something thank you. Sure the majourity of Canadians voted for different parties but the majourity of Canadians didn't vote for one specific party so the Conservatives deserve the win. I think a minority government is best because it protects us from being over run extremely in either direction (left wing or right wing). This Coalition is just full of sore losers.

[Jennifer]

The biggest threat to national unity of late is Harper himself, and his complete mishandling of his first test as PM. The Bloc had almost entirely lost its focus on separation, and instead, seemed to be focussed on simply being a voice for Quebec. Harper helped re-focus them. Well done, Stephen.

Last week was one big cluster of errors. I would have been comedic, if there wasn't so much at stake. Our constitution took a major hit, all for the sake of partisan politics, and I'm not sure we can entirely recover from it.

[Mike Pavich]

While I chose NOT to watch Dion, I must agree with you on all the points. As I have stated before, I am from the West, I remember Harper and the Reform Party well. hmmm Reform Party, Bloc.. Bloc, Reform Party. Like I said, no difference.

[Jason Chamberlain]

In defense of monkeys everywhere, focus can be tricky.

And I'm no fan of Harper either. Dion, unfortunately, couldn't talk himself out of a paper bag. Jack Layton would make a better PM than either of them, IMO.