Her Majesty’s Reeking Official Opposition
Is it possible that Parliament’s passage of C-16 was actually a calculated risk by the Harper government designed to expose the weakness of the Official Opposition? The risk of course is two-fold: That this Government could be taken down at a moment in time that would not be of their liking, and of course there is the undeniable fact that the CPC could be put in the same awkward situation when they are someday back on the other side of the House (although I hope that never happens).
However, right now it is working to the advantage of the Conservative government. Stephane Dion is increasingly cast in the role of a stumbling, bumbling fool who can’t make up his mind what to do one day, and then the next he is painted as stubbornly resisting the sage advice of others who are eager to actually do what they were sent to Ottawa to do, which is to vote and be counted.
This has generated an internal struggle and lack of solidarity that is becoming increasingly difficult to contain. Even Lawrence Martin , the Globe’s resident Liberal apologist is starting to have problems defending the party. He even points out that although Ralph Goodale is a "good chap," he "reeks of old politics" and "needs a new assignment."
Yikes! Talk about tough love!!
Now the Conservatives and NDP are planning to expose the Liberals’ lack of accountability to their constituents, by targeting the no-shows. (Does anyone have a list of House of Commons votes and who didn’t show up?)
Clearly there are some influential Liberal caucus members who are sick and tired of sitting on their hands and having to defend their hypocritical position, when they rail against the government one day, and then refuse it bring it down the next.
They include, but are not limited to Bob Rae, Michael Ignatieff, Ralph Goodale, Karen Redman, John McCallum, and Dominic LeBlanc.
One thing for sure - The longer the Liberals say one thing but do another, the more they will be taunted by the other parties for their hypocrisy.
And contrary to Ralph Goodale’s assessment of the other two opposition parties, the NDP’s plan to poke the LPC on this one will yield results far greater than "the square root of nothing."
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Afternoon Update : Liberals show divisions on timing of Carbon Tax Plan - CTV.
Steve Janke - The Carbon Tax Grab: Garth Turner blinks.
Well, my hunch is that Garth is very hot for an election, and the perfect timing for said election will occur precisely at the moment that his Red Messiah delivers the sermon from the Hill.
Evening Update: Warren Kinsella was on MDL advising Dion to defer the Carbon Tax plan, and go for an election now. Another interesting item was his (dare I say) admiration of the CPC’s clever use of earned media.
Also, via Calgary Grit we have this Globe link with an intriguing line: …Later, one Conservative official laughed, saying the Liberals “took the bait.”
CTV - House passes controversial immigration reforms:
With several Liberals abstaining, the House of Commons has approved controversial Conservative reforms to Canada’s immigration laws by a vote of 121-90…
I want the stats for that one!
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Tuesday Update: Please watch this awesome video (Slacker’s Unite!) by Hunter at Climbing out of the Dark, showing your tax dollars hard at work!!!
And via Diogenes Borealis, we have this gem from the OLO:
Dion again asserted yesterday that he didn’t want to provoke a July election and said, as he did last week, that he didn’t think July was the right month to seize his chance because it’s "the only month of the year with sun and heat."
I think I need a T-shirt.
June 9th, 2008 at 8:32 am
The Liberals are NOT even on my radar these days..yet the tory bloggers continue to drone on as if they pose some sort of threat to the Harper gov’t.
Prescription - visit Crux the next time you get feeling like we need to spend time discussing lemmings or puffins, and click on Sandy’s list of accomplishments and THEN take two aspirin, and go outside and enjoy the climate change.
The Liberals are done like dinner, slowly going the way of the dodo bird, sinking to the bottom of the pickle barrel.
And, no one trusts the MSM anymore for their news and commentary don’t'ya know.
Blogs and e-news is where it’s at now.
June 9th, 2008 at 8:39 am
How about the permanent no-shows like Paul Martin. Is that guy still representing his riding or what?
June 9th, 2008 at 9:20 am
Paul Martin is representing his riding, by visiting Brenda Martin, in prision ,in Mexico. Last time I saw Paul, was on Don Newman with Phil Fontain crying about what could of been, if the country voted Liberal.
He also was around for the Cadman book…you know the one…the doctored tape was the end result on that story.
June 9th, 2008 at 9:26 am
PS. Possibly Paul Martin is busy golfing… on his private golf course, he’s having built in his back yard? Saw Belinda at QP TWICE.
June 9th, 2008 at 9:26 am
It will indeed be fascinating to watch the outcome of the next election … whenever it comes !
I would not be too surprised to see some Liberal voters migrate to the Conservatives and others move to support the NDP.
If that does happen , the once mighty Liberal party will require years to recover.
June 9th, 2008 at 10:15 am
This has to be the best line of the Hill Times article:
‘Mr. Goodale said his party’s strategy of “strategic patience” is so that Canadians have time to see the failings of the current government.’
Put that on an election sign - “We used strategic patience”. LOL
June 9th, 2008 at 10:26 am
As far as I know, if you want to see who voted and who didn’t you have to look at Hansard. When there’s a vote they publish who voted which way. While it doesn’t tell you specifically who was there (it’s against House decorum rules to point out members who are absent) it at least lets you know who bothered to actually vote.
June 9th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Tell me something why, why are the MSM willing to risk their jobs ‘defending the liberals.’
Half of this country know about the liberals and their corruption and thievery yet the MSM do not give a dam to spend day and without fail ‘trying to recover’ OUR MONEY.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Jen, IMO, the media was so sure that the minority govt would not last 6 mos to a year that they stayed with the liberal spin. The longer PMSH stayed and did what he said he would, the harder it got/gets for the media to switch horses. After a year of constant bashing and it never worked, the media knows it is done like dinner. After PMSH gets his majority or very increased minority, look for lots of retirements.
Any conservative candidate running against a sitting liberal, all they have to do is a little math.
Yearly salary of an MP divided by 365 = basic per day pay. How many confidence or other votes did liberals abstain from. Then ask, will you re-elect xxx to take (put in figure) your tax dollars to say away from votes or something like that.
In ridings where libs are vying for a seat, the question at forums could/should be, do you promise to attend the HofC daily and vote on all bills. Will you put that in writing and promise to resign should you fail to do so.
Those questions should be asked of all libs when they are on call-in shows, town hall meetings, forums or at the door.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Thanks for the information about the voting records, Reid. I just find it rather cumbersome to use Hansard for those purposes. There used to be a website with the info, but I don’t think it’s been updated lately.
I’d like to be able to know where each member was for each vote and what the outcome was. I really don’t understand what “House decorum” has to do with it. These days with Blackberries and the internet there doesn’t seem to be any excuse not to be able to register a vote. I think this is something that needs to be looked at, IMHO.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:13 pm
The fake pressure from Bob Rae, Michael Ignatieff, Ralph Goodale, Karen Redman, John McCallum, and Dominic LeBlan to force an election,
is a lame attempt to make Dion look like a strong leader, IMO.
The LPC will need every minute leading up to Oct 2009, to get their act together.
They need the Dec policy convention to give Dion a mandate, put a stop to his ‘winging it’. (maybe the delegates will show up to vote for policy this time)
They need the year and half to pay off leadership debts and get that bank account healthy.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
From Andrew Coyne’s Blog Underplayed story of the day:
Ranking members of the Liberal caucus this week repeatedly pushed Stéphane Dion to trigger a federal election campaign next week, but the Liberal Leader rebuffed their pleas, sources say … They included … Whip Karen Redman, …
Wow, even the whip is challenging Dion ?! Will she still insist that all but 12 or so Liberal MPs stay away from the budget implementation vote today ?
This will be a must-see movie for us junkies–the first act of Mutiny on the Titanic !
June 9th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
What time will this vote take place, and will it be televised on cbc. If the govt falls tonight, will the liberals turn out to campaign.
June 9th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
What is appalling is not just that the Liberals don’t show up for votes, (after all if the Whip tells you not to come, you don’t have much option), but that an awful lot of them don’t seem to show up period.
Check out the wide shots at Question Period. The Conservative, Bloc and NDP seats are usually pretty well full, but the Liberals are all huddled in the centre to fill the shot around Dion and Ignatieff. Occasionally a back bencher sitting in the very back row gets to ask a question, and all you can see around him are empty seats.
There is an absurd convention that MPs’ attendance in the Chamber should not be made public. I have no idea the reson for it, but it should definitely be reviewed IMHO. If you only show up for work on an occasional basis, it is called “casual labour” oor “part-time employment” and you are compensated accordingly. The senator who spent all his time in Mexico got booted, and I think something similar should apply to MPs.
June 9th, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Karen Redman is a political light weight with little influence. Because Dion has to put women in a front line position in his party she received the whip’s position. She hasn’t shown me anything that would give me reason not to keep her on very back benches of the oppostion party.
Her ego has damaged her to the point where she thinks somebody is interested in what’s in her vacous head and she hasn’t done anything yet that would give anyone hope that she has any principle.
Who in the Liberal front benches has less to offer debate in the House than Karen Redman (except Dion)?
Dion was clever enough to put somebody that incompetent in that position so he wouldn’t look bad.
June 9th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
If the Liberals topple the gov’t today ALL OF CANADA WILL HATE THEM because if there’s one thing Canadians hate is having their summer vacations messed with because of an election.
June 9th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
According to Susan Bohnar and Newman there will be no election. A token number of libs will show up. Get their names. But, I thought I saw a smirk, usually reserved for conservatives, on her face when she said this. Iggy is asking questions re the grease spots and Newman wants to interview the grease spots.
June 9th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
So if Dion’s Grinouse gaz tax is supposed to be revenue nuetral, why bother in the first place? I mean, that’s like asking someone for a dollar, then giving it right back. Make one wonder, what’s the point?
…..unless of course that tax is NOT revenue nuetral…..
On another thought, lately I’ve wondered if the Conservatives were to introduce a bill declaring the CPC the permanent government of Canada, with Harper as dictator, how many liberal MPs would show up to vote.
June 9th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Eskimo: lol, I can hear Dion saying, after missing the vote, it is not easy to be fooled.
June 9th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
Actually Mary, I can picture him being interviewed saying ‘I miz da vote because da mizz-iz gave me da telephone call an sez urry ome Kyoto is a choke on da chicken bone and I say may oui, I be rite der’, I say to ‘er.
June 9th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Phew! Thanks for the clarification Joanne. I thought I read …Garth Turner “stinks”…..but it’s “blinks”
The good news in all of this is that Dion’s not going anywhere any time soon……Merry Christmas Steve!!
June 9th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Kinsella is half right. Dion should defer the Carbon Tax before he destroys the good parts of it, and go to election now.
All talk would be about the Dion “hidden agenda”, during any upcoming campaign.
June 9th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
All talk would be about the Dion “hidden agenda”, during any upcoming campaign.
Exactly what I was thinking!!! He was telling Dion that this won’t get him into office. i.e. He needs to drop this for now, and then pick it up later if he ever gets power. That is a hidden agenda if I ever heard one!!!
June 9th, 2008 at 9:45 pm
I had the displeasure of hearing question period today since the news was on loud in th next room.
Dion’s ranting emotional outburst required NO Video ….
June 10th, 2008 at 12:02 am
With no election the conservatives can continue to run ads with no limit on money spent. Liberals are broke and can’t retaliate, except by getting their media friends to make their case.
Wonder how the boycott is going, so far no one has found a talking greasespot. Did the 1 ton challenge get advertised in any way at gas stations.