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The Coalition: A Success for the Liberals
Jan. 29, 2009N. Lukanovich
Now that Michael Ignatieff has decided to support the budget (how could he not?) Jack Layton is back to hating the Liberals. According to an unnamed source, Layton is building a wax effigy of Ignatieff, with the moral support of Gilles Duceppe. Harper is working on his own in private; even though the budget has passed muster the writing's on the wall. Both effigies will be lit on fire at the call of the next election. No more Dion to mock and kick about the playground, Ignatieff is a clever strategist with a cool head and, worst still, a strong speaker - in both languages.
The leaders of the other parties will mourn the passing of Dion, their hopes dashed that the Liberal Party will sink into the abyss of political history. All those, including some pundits, who prophesied the downfall of the Liberals forgot their own arguments: that Dion was so unpopular he was the cause of the slide.
Personally, I liked Dion; he is a rare politician that sincerely cares about his nation and its people. But he was not a strategist, doesn't know how to play the game, was not imbued with enough ego or charisma to take control of his party, and was a francophone damned in Quebec for writing the Clarity Act, and damned in English Canada for his inability to speak English clearly.
Dion was the leader of the coalition that lacked support in the polls until he was dumped by the Liberals for Ignatieff. While Layton and Duceppe are busy attacking the Liberals for betraying the coalition, it appears that their memories are faulty. According to their statements the coalition was formed because the Conservatives were not taking the recession seriously, were not going to create a stimulus package, and were more interested partisan games than serving the people of Canada. I supported the coalition as long as the Prime Minister continued to suffer from delusions of grandeur and illusions that we had a solid economy. If the coalition had come to pass, it could have worked; even enemies work well together when they have the same goals, especially when they have worked out their policy differences in advance.
But Harper screamed prorogue, and with the help of the Governor General had time to go back to his cave and figure out how to hold on to power. In the meantime, the Liberal switch to Ignatieff boosted support for the coalition and the Liberal Party (while the media rarely, if ever, mentioned the drift in the polls for supporting the coalition, Harper was clearly watching). Harper knew that if his party did not create a budget that appeased the Liberals they would find themselves in the midst of another election with weakened support or god forbid: sitting in a House as opposition party to a coalition government that could rule as a majority.
In the final analysis, the coalition successfully served its purpose: it forced the Conservatives to come up with a stimulus package. Michael Ignatieff has the wisdom to realize that toppling the government when it's essentially given in to Liberal demands smacks of an unnecessary power grab. Layton on the other hand, shouted from the pulpit that he would vote down the budget without reading it. He is wildly accusing the Liberals of being in a new coalition with the Conservatives. But he is a fickle kind of dude; he seems to forget his cozy agreement with the Conservatives to vote out the Liberals in 2005. Were the NDP in a coalition with the Cons?
Layton doesn't seem to realize that the coalition could be kept on the backburner as a tool to keep the Conservatives in check. If he had not been so determined to throw the bums out at any cost, he could have, like Ignatieff and even Dion before him, stated that he would have to see the budget before making a decision. Then he could have claimed victory for the coalition as it forced Harper to deliver a budget that goes against all Conservative policies. As for Duceppe? He, too, should have expressed a need to review the budget before making a decision. The budget is not bad for Quebec. But Ignatieff is bad for the Bloq, he is riding high in the polls especially in Quebec: not only is he neither tainted by the sponsorship scandal, nor associated with the Clarity Act, but he even supported the bill to call Quebec a nation.
And the winner is: Michael Ignatieff and the Liberal Party. If there was no coalition, and if Stephen Harper had not prorgued Parliament, Ignatieff would still be waiting in the wings.
The leaders of the other parties will mourn the passing of Dion, their hopes dashed that the Liberal Party will sink into the abyss of political history. All those, including some pundits, who prophesied the downfall of the Liberals forgot their own arguments: that Dion was so unpopular he was the cause of the slide.
Personally, I liked Dion; he is a rare politician that sincerely cares about his nation and its people. But he was not a strategist, doesn't know how to play the game, was not imbued with enough ego or charisma to take control of his party, and was a francophone damned in Quebec for writing the Clarity Act, and damned in English Canada for his inability to speak English clearly.
Dion was the leader of the coalition that lacked support in the polls until he was dumped by the Liberals for Ignatieff. While Layton and Duceppe are busy attacking the Liberals for betraying the coalition, it appears that their memories are faulty. According to their statements the coalition was formed because the Conservatives were not taking the recession seriously, were not going to create a stimulus package, and were more interested partisan games than serving the people of Canada. I supported the coalition as long as the Prime Minister continued to suffer from delusions of grandeur and illusions that we had a solid economy. If the coalition had come to pass, it could have worked; even enemies work well together when they have the same goals, especially when they have worked out their policy differences in advance.
But Harper screamed prorogue, and with the help of the Governor General had time to go back to his cave and figure out how to hold on to power. In the meantime, the Liberal switch to Ignatieff boosted support for the coalition and the Liberal Party (while the media rarely, if ever, mentioned the drift in the polls for supporting the coalition, Harper was clearly watching). Harper knew that if his party did not create a budget that appeased the Liberals they would find themselves in the midst of another election with weakened support or god forbid: sitting in a House as opposition party to a coalition government that could rule as a majority.
In the final analysis, the coalition successfully served its purpose: it forced the Conservatives to come up with a stimulus package. Michael Ignatieff has the wisdom to realize that toppling the government when it's essentially given in to Liberal demands smacks of an unnecessary power grab. Layton on the other hand, shouted from the pulpit that he would vote down the budget without reading it. He is wildly accusing the Liberals of being in a new coalition with the Conservatives. But he is a fickle kind of dude; he seems to forget his cozy agreement with the Conservatives to vote out the Liberals in 2005. Were the NDP in a coalition with the Cons?
Layton doesn't seem to realize that the coalition could be kept on the backburner as a tool to keep the Conservatives in check. If he had not been so determined to throw the bums out at any cost, he could have, like Ignatieff and even Dion before him, stated that he would have to see the budget before making a decision. Then he could have claimed victory for the coalition as it forced Harper to deliver a budget that goes against all Conservative policies. As for Duceppe? He, too, should have expressed a need to review the budget before making a decision. The budget is not bad for Quebec. But Ignatieff is bad for the Bloq, he is riding high in the polls especially in Quebec: not only is he neither tainted by the sponsorship scandal, nor associated with the Clarity Act, but he even supported the bill to call Quebec a nation.
And the winner is: Michael Ignatieff and the Liberal Party. If there was no coalition, and if Stephen Harper had not prorgued Parliament, Ignatieff would still be waiting in the wings.
