Inkless Wells

Paul Wells on all the latest out of Ottawa—along with the occasional post about jazz. Follow Paul on Twitter: @InklessPW

Categories: Inkless Wells

I'm not saying the coalition is dead…

by Paul Wells on Saturday, December 13, 2008 8:51am - 134 Comments

I’m just saying it’s not exactly tap-dancing right now.

Incidentally, perhaps we should define our terms. Are people who argue that the coalition isn’t dead saying that a Liberal will serve as Canada’s prime minister before the next general election, with a cabinet that includes New Democrats? Or are they saying that the coalition will continue to exist as a threat, to be delivered solemnly at scrum microphones in an ever-feebler attempt to get the (Conservative) Prime Minister to back off selected initiatives, without having to go through an actual election?

In the latter case, “the coalition” would indeed survive, as a kind of druther, a preference for a future that never actually arrives because its advocates dare not try to hasten its coming. Kind of like Social Credit. Or sovereignty-association. And I’m certainly willing to concede that the idea of a Liberal-led coalition government before the next general election is as hale and hearty as Social Credit.

Tags: coalition

More by Paul Wells

Simon Stephenson

jarrid:

Not drunk…despite it is a Saturday…..Just because I have made some typos here and there. Are you saying that you think i’m against quebec soughvernism because I clearly stood up for the Bloc in my 1st statement
Simon Stephenson

french and english helped make Canada* (correction on my 1st post)
Steve Wart

Simon I look forward to the coalition making their arguments about how they will represent Canada in their election campaign.

In the meantime, I hope you have an enjoyable Christmas.
Two Yen

I think the defenders of the Bloc’s role in the coalition miss the point that the interests of Quebeckers are not indentical to the interests of the Bloc.

The Bloc portrays itself as the sole defender of Quebec interests in Parliament. While this may be a good political strategy for them, it certainly is not accurate to say that the other three political parties, all of whom have MPs in Quebec, do not represnet the interests of Quebeckers.

When federalist parties start accepting the concept of “Canada and Quebec” the separatists are halfway to winning their key argument.
Francien Verhoeven

“but people were having negative visceral reactions to BQ being the power behind the throne and that’s not likely to change because Iggy is around now”

—————————

And especially not when Ignatieff has been appointed as Liberal leader by a select view (the Liberal party executive). Ignatieff stands unelected by the Liberal party membership.

Who would want see this country governed by an un-elected Liberal leader in co-operation with the Duceppe (who openly admits that he is a separatist).

Solid democratic principles won’t allow for it to happen.
Jack Mitchell

@archangel — LOL!

Am doing my best to popularise the “FUFU” label for the crisis, since none other seems to have emerged. This little jingle goes a long way to making it history. Hear us, historians! FUFU!
http://wells kc

francien
if you ar’nt a member of the LiberalParty why are you complaining?
‘ solid democratic principles wont allow…’
Apparently they will allow for a demogogic pM to throw charges like: traitor, undemocratic, and illegal around when he knew perfectly well it wasn;t. But then democratic is a term which is practically meaningless nowadays. i wonder why.?
corge clooney

There’s definitely a lot of electricity in the air, which is spawning enormous debate. It’s like a big game of chess, and no one really knows what Harpig’s / Pignatieff”s next move will be. We can only speculate. One thing is certain however, that the Reformer is on his way out… It’s just a question of time. History has revealed that despots, out of desperation, will always put up a major fight before going down.
corge clooney

There is no mention from any commentator that our parliamentary system is based on the British model. In the event of a non confidence vote on the budget, the Governor General would adhere to standard protocol, namely to ask the leader of the Opposition if he believes he could govern under a coalition with the confidence of the House. (The coalition is official, as it was signed by all 3 opposition leaders with the signed support of all opposition MP’s.) I do not believe her decision will be dictated by public opinion. Besides why would she call an election seeing as we just had one, plus it’s time the Government got to work on dealing with the economic crisis. If we add another potential election campaign to the 2-month suspension of Parliament, that would signal government inertia for well over six months, i.e. from early September, 2008 until March 2009 approximately, which I am sure she would view as unnacceptable.