Inkless Wells

 Inkless Wells

Paul Wells on all the latest out of Ottawa—along with the occasional post about jazz. Follow Paul on Twitter: @InklessPW
He also offers his thoughtful perspective of Stephen Harper’s last 10 years in his recent eBook, The Harper Decade.

Categories: Blog Central, Capital Read, Inkless Wells

Words to live by

by Paul Wells on Friday, November 28, 2008 3:04pm - 15 Comments

As we try to make sense of the events ahead, I’m struck by this argument:

Parliament should not be treated as a plaything, that lives or dies at the Prime Minister’s pleasure; …elections should not be rigged to the governing party’s advantage, in timing as in any other respect; …the public should not be deprived of fair and open competition among the various contenders for power.

From a blog post about the wisdom of parliamentary solutions to confidence crises.

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  • http://tigerathome.wordpress.com The Tiger

    Are you trying to maneuver Coyne into a corner, Wells?

  • Paul Wells

    I haven’t the slightest doubt that if Andrew wants to play, he will give better than he gets.

  • http://tigerathome.wordpress.com The Tiger

    Just as with Canadian politics today, your loyal readers will watch events unfold with a bowl of popcorn.

  • http://prairiewrangler.wordpress.com/ Olaf

    I hope he wants to play.

  • seaandthemountains

    Do we have any of the old fashioned reporting going on/that we can pay attention to?

    How are talks going? is anyone getting leaks? what is on the table/falling off?

  • Andrew E

    Harper’s got enough sense to know that, if the Libs/NDP put the votes together to dump him, his caucus will send him packing. So Flaherty will be asked to take the fall. We’ll have a new finance minister on Monday.

    I’m appalled by Harper’s performance over the last few days, and I’m not saying he deserves a chance to remain at 24 Sussex. But the alternative — Dion as caretaker PM at the head of a loose and unstable coalition government, and everyone knowing that another election will happen as soon as Iggy/Bob/Dom hits the house — is not great in the middle of the greatest domestic crisis in decades.

  • Sisyphus

    He probably hasn’t recovered from his revelatory performance on “At Issue” last night. Even his slightly-less- conservative fellow panelists were shaking their heads.

  • Mark Graham

    Where the hell are all the adults in Ottawa? It’s like Lord of the Flies without the conch. Has anyone in any of our political parties considered what happens on _Tuesday_?

  • sw

    Aww, does that mean Dion is Piggy?

  • sw

    Aww, does that mean Dion is Piggy?

  • Andrew (not Potter or Coyne)

    He can’t run (for the leadership) on account of his ass-mar.

  • Mark Graham

    Zing! x2

  • BC Voice of Reason

    IF Dion is PM, even for a day, would it be OK to appoint himself to the senate, along with Lizzy May and Gerald Kennedy and Peter Mansbridge??

  • http://demosthenes.blogspot.com Demosthenes

    Pity that he was not so wise about the issue at hand.

    “Obama can raise oodles of money, so the Greens, Liberals, Bloquists and NDP should be forced into bankruptcy because I hate the idea of public financing THAT much”?

    Cripes.

  • JVSCant

    Nothing to see here, just stealth-testing bold and italic tags on an old post. Yep, [b]bold[/b] and [i]italic[/i] tags[].

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