Sock It To Us
This is turning out to be an election that is going to great lengths to demonstrate to the voting public that they were quite correct in feeling that there was no need for an election. The governing party, whose budget was rejected by the opposition parties in a deliberate plan to bring down the government, has the polling advantage in numbers that aren't budging. They are trotting out, one-by-one, the initiatives, modest but useful, contained in the budget, which they plan to re-introduce as is, on being re-elected.
Which the opposition parties have put the electorate and the Conservatives on notice of their intention of rejecting that very same budget again. Giving them the splendid opportunity to overturn the voters' choice, if the Conservatives come back in again with a minority government - and use their Parliamentary privilege to form a coalition government. Proving to the electorate that their wishes are meaningless and that the expense and nuisance of an election was wasted.
A waste that they themselves initiated. To enable them to once again attempt to ditch a government the electorate decided upon. At which time they would manoeuvre among themselves for seats in Parliament, and some hefty horse-trading would be the order of the day until everyone's little aspirations were realized.
And the Liberals and the NDP would be further indebted to a sovereigntist Bloc leader, graspingly delighted to extract further goodies for Quebec from a grateful alliance.
The NDP and the Liberals shrilly denounce the Conservatives for their military B-35 jet bomber acquisition when both are fully aware that replacement of the current air fleet is inevitable, and we've been down that road before, a costly and disastrous one. The Conservatives' tough agenda on crime is unpalatable to the middling-and-left-left, but appealing to most of the electorate.
Jack Layton is campaigning in gang-crime-ridden parts of B.C., holding out the carrot of his party's own crime agenda; the hiring of 2,500 additional police, passing legislation against gang recruitment, and legislating home invasions and car-jacking as single-issue crimes with their own standards of punishment. But the Conservative version of battling crime is dastardly.
And while he's prepared to make common cause with the Liberals to prevent the Conservatives from gaining any advantage, he's also bad-mouthing the Liberals in a desperate attempt to prevent any more slippage in the numbers of NDP MPs elected this time around. Declaring that he is prepared to have his party win a majority in the House of Commons, he promises the moon. You can just hear the deficit ballooning.
Not that the Liberals' leader Michael Ignatieff is any slouch in that department, having up to now pledged multiple-billions in new spending initiatives, all of which will be handily paid for by increasing the recently-decreased corporate tax rate. Just as well that the electorate is monumentally naive and slow to discern when they're being duped.
Election time is that time when politicians have free reign to prove that they wilfully and with full intention underestimate the intelligence of the average voter.
Which the opposition parties have put the electorate and the Conservatives on notice of their intention of rejecting that very same budget again. Giving them the splendid opportunity to overturn the voters' choice, if the Conservatives come back in again with a minority government - and use their Parliamentary privilege to form a coalition government. Proving to the electorate that their wishes are meaningless and that the expense and nuisance of an election was wasted.
A waste that they themselves initiated. To enable them to once again attempt to ditch a government the electorate decided upon. At which time they would manoeuvre among themselves for seats in Parliament, and some hefty horse-trading would be the order of the day until everyone's little aspirations were realized.
And the Liberals and the NDP would be further indebted to a sovereigntist Bloc leader, graspingly delighted to extract further goodies for Quebec from a grateful alliance.
The NDP and the Liberals shrilly denounce the Conservatives for their military B-35 jet bomber acquisition when both are fully aware that replacement of the current air fleet is inevitable, and we've been down that road before, a costly and disastrous one. The Conservatives' tough agenda on crime is unpalatable to the middling-and-left-left, but appealing to most of the electorate.
Jack Layton is campaigning in gang-crime-ridden parts of B.C., holding out the carrot of his party's own crime agenda; the hiring of 2,500 additional police, passing legislation against gang recruitment, and legislating home invasions and car-jacking as single-issue crimes with their own standards of punishment. But the Conservative version of battling crime is dastardly.
And while he's prepared to make common cause with the Liberals to prevent the Conservatives from gaining any advantage, he's also bad-mouthing the Liberals in a desperate attempt to prevent any more slippage in the numbers of NDP MPs elected this time around. Declaring that he is prepared to have his party win a majority in the House of Commons, he promises the moon. You can just hear the deficit ballooning.
Not that the Liberals' leader Michael Ignatieff is any slouch in that department, having up to now pledged multiple-billions in new spending initiatives, all of which will be handily paid for by increasing the recently-decreased corporate tax rate. Just as well that the electorate is monumentally naive and slow to discern when they're being duped.
Election time is that time when politicians have free reign to prove that they wilfully and with full intention underestimate the intelligence of the average voter.
posted by Pieface | 7:04 PM
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