Seriously, if the goal is to take out Stephen Harper [and please, please, please make that the goal] then doncha think that Jack Layton and Michael Ignatieff should check their egos at the door and win control of Parliament.
And if that means Bob Rae is the next Prime Minister of Canada instead of one of you two, so be it.
WFDS
I'm sorry but our leader is Michael Ignatieff, and given the chance he will prove to be one of this country's greatest PM's.
ReplyDeleteThis whole coalition talk is undermining all of our efforts. Talk about shooting yourself in the head. Sheesh.
Presumably the goal should be to elect a new PM. This would by definition take out Harper.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that many view Iggy or Layton as a worse alternative than Harper.Same goes for Rae.
But even if you are right that the goal should be to get rid of Harper. How?
Do you support not running candidates in all ridings? Do you support the Sepratists calling the shots? Do you accept Iggy/Rae/Layton as PM? Who should be deputy? Can there be a coherent policy on Afghanistan?
The easy part is wishing Harper gone. The harder part is keeping that "big tent" of yours from falling apart while doing so.
Polls are suggesting that a coalition led by Jack Layton as leader would beat the tories, in other words Ignatieff can't win even with a united left. I suggest that the real problem is that Ignatieff shouldn't be leader, and before we end up in an election let's dump him and find a winner!!!
ReplyDeleteLooking at the comments above, it occurs to me that the dissonant views can perhaps be very simply ratinonlized.
ReplyDeleteThere are those of us who desparately want another government instead of this one. This first group would be willing to accept anyone else (Layton, Rae, Ignatieff, perhaps even Duceppe) who has a realistic chance of beating Harper. Then there is the other group who only want to replace Harper only with themselves in power. This second group would apparently rather support or put up with this government, despite all their unhappiness with it, until they are reasonably sure that they themselves will be in the seat of power once Harper is booted out. Lol.
@ Philius Maximus:
ReplyDeleteThat poll suggested nothing of the sort. It wasn't about an NDP-Liberal coalition, but a party merger. No more NDP or Liberal party, but some new hybrid party led by either Iggy or Rae or Layton. I don't know why people keep thinking it was about a coalition. Did no one actually read the poll?
I don't think "being friends" really has anything to do with it. There's really no mystery here.
ReplyDeleteAll the major parties will each run a full slate of candidates in the next election--each with their own platform just as parties do in countries all over the world. There won't be any merger; there won't be any non-compete agreement. Once we elect a parliament, the leader with the support of a majority of MPs will form a government.
The reason Stephen Harper is still in power is quite simply because Michael Ignatieff chose to give him majority support in parliament rather form a coalition with the NDP. That's certainly Ignatieff's perogative, but it means that if we want to take down Harper the way to do it is to convince Michael Ignatieff that it would be political suicide to keep Harper in power again after the next election.
There's really no mystery here.
I agree. The Libs and the NDP have to work together for the good of the country.
ReplyDelete