It appears that Liberal leadership candidate and MP Michael Ignatieff is fully committed to the proposed Liberal-NDP coalition government.
I have just obtained the following message Ignatieff sent this afternoon to his supporters and potential supporters.
In it Ignatieff says that "it would appear that Canada is heading for a coalition government" and goes on to blame the Conservatives for the current political turmoil.
Rumours that Ignatieff is hesitant to support the coalition proposal would appear to be wrong.
Here is the full English version of the email.
-----Original Message-----From: Michael Ignatieff
[mailto:michael@michaelignatieff.ca]
Sent: Monday, December 01, 2008 3:21 PM
To: XXXX
Subject: Keeping our Focus - Restons concentrés
Dear Friends,
As the situation in Ottawa evolves, I think it's crucial that we keep our focus.
It would appear that Canada is heading for a coalition government based on an accord that stresses responsible economic leadership in tough times while ensuring national unity and equality -- values that our party has always believed in.
We should keep focused on one simple fact. The current situation is a direct result of Stephen Harper and Jim Flaherty's failure to make any attempt to address the very real concerns of Canadians -- many who are facing difficult and uncertain times.
Bob, Dominic and I agree that the leadership race will continue in an orderly and civil manner. I encourage you all to get involved by volunteering, registering with the Party and donating.
We are in an excellent position to win this leadership race and make history. Together we can help Canada move on from the disastrous politics of the Conservative government.
Stay in touch,
Michael
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15 comments:
So what happens with the senate vacancies at the moment? There are 18 to be filled and 11 more coming.
Will it be Harper or will it be Dion? Will Layton agree with the senate appointments and require New Democrats to be appointed?
A pox on all their houses!
Bill:
Let me quote from the letter sent: "To our fellow citizens" from: "Hon. Stéphane Dion
Leader, the Liberal Party of Canada
Hon. Jack Layton
Leader, the New Democratic Party of Canada
Gilles Duceppe
Leader, the Bloc Québécois"
"A majority of CANADIANS and QUEBECERS (my caps) voted for our parties on October 14, 2008. Our Members of Parliament make up 55 percent of the House of Commons."
Clearly, this is an "unholy" alliance and as such, let us pray that the Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean Governor General of Canada rejects their request to form the next Government of Canada.
Bill:
I forgot to also cap "To Are Fellow Citizens"
Sorry about that.
In the last days of the Weimer Republic, Germany went through various unstable and ineffective minority and coalition governments that represented a corrupt-polygot of special interest groups and regions.
By 1932 Germany was a state in a state of anarchy with the various parties of the left, right and centre brawling in the streets.
For the regular citizen they faced major economic and social meltdown with millions ultimately unemployed and hundreds of thousands starving in front of public buildings.
At this moment we have our under-achieving Three Stooges attempting to overthrow the bullying manager of the biggest shopping mall in Canada.
All Canadians are guilty of allowing their country to fall into this mess by even showing up at the polls.
A NONE OF THE ABOVE-SPOIL YOUR BALLOT action at the polls in October would have not given legitimacy to any of these clowns.
The GREAT SATAN
God God! Even Monty Python could run the country better. Canada has reached the nadir, with this self serving lot in Ottawa, never in Canadian history has so many inept fools been leaders of political parties.
Harper - a.k.a. Harpo, a mean spirited, American loving advertisement for the 'jack-boot' crowd.
Dion - a.k.a. Green Man - unintelligible Quebec type, who believes that the Liberals are the natural ruling party.
Layton - a.k.a. who? A self important no-mind who is along for the one-way ride.
Gilles Duceppe - a.k.a. the Separatist, single minded man who wants to split the country and more. In other countries its called treason but not in Canada, where it seems just the normal state of affairs.
Not one of these guys are trustworthy, not one can see even 1 minute into the future; all just grubby half-wits who are legends in their own minds.
It's time for a complete change!
Harper ran as a moderate in the last election. He donned his blue sweater vest to send a message to his supporters that he is now different. He misrepresented himself to the public and that is how he garnered alot of conservative votes. After the election, off came the vest, and he went right back into his ideological ways. Serves him right! If I were a con voter, I'd be furious with him. As for all the women voters out there that did vote for him, and now see that he does not support pay equity, they now have a clearer picture of who he really is.
Per a posting I left on another one of your entries, CBC Radio 1's "The Current" did an item on the King Byng affair. There is a podcast posted if folks care to dig for it.
The broadcast went into the constitionality of the GG's decision back then. They did not deal with the subsequent election, which Meighen lost after ruling for a couple of months. It did not deal with how the public viewed the morality of the GG's decision, which I think is more of the angle that Bill is coming from.
Fascinating.
CBC is speculating that Elizabeth Mae will be appointed to the Senate, allowing her to be appointed the Minister of Environment in the new Coalition cabinet.
Let the howling continue! (It's really quite amusing.)
Finally! Parity in the house. The beginning of the best (and most logical) thing to ever happen to Canadian politics. I'd prefer a long history of coalitions and negotiations over all the bills in the house rather than the rampant ideological peacock displays that I've seen over the past couple years.
Repealing the funding? I can't believe they honestly thought that one would work and two, that they told us now and not as a surprise when the budget was announced. The sweater's undone!
For Canadians, the Conservatives have been wrong on almost every issue that has defined what Canadians believe in. On the questions of universal healthcare, and small "l" liberal community standards, the Tories have been swimming upstream. As a result they've spent 90% of so of the last century on the outside looking in. Those of us "of a certain age" remember the vicious lying fight they put up against universal health care.
Harper has "won" two minority governments. Despite an historic Liberal collapse in Quebec he was unable to win a majority. Why? Because Canadians are not ready to hand over our "social network" to the "tender care" of the Religious Right and the Reaganite "Trickle Down, Deregulate, Government is the enemy" crowd.
As in the USA, the "right" doesn't want government "leaner" it wants Government "gone." The US shows us the end game of that philosophy. Canadians know better.
Polls always show a majority of Canadians as being "center/left." Harper's hatred and disrespect of the opposition may have now created the "New Liberal Democratic Party" of Canada.
Thank you Mr. Harper, your disrespect is going to give Canadians the opportunity to elect, "Change we can believe in!"
Hi Bill, I was hoping that you would write some cogent words on the subject of the new Canadian Coalition.
I was disappointed when the Tyee ran an editorial with the subhead, "NDP is crazy to team with Liberals and Bloc. Besides, Harper won." The opinion about the NDP is just opinion, but the statement that Harper won is misleading at best, and is really an incorrect observation.
Canadians did not elect a majority government. As any school kid should be able to explain (to all those Canadian Journalists who should know how our parliamentary government works): Canadians elected a parliament. That's all they did. Technically it is not correct to say that they elected a minority PC government. Mr. Harper and the PCs could govern only because they had the confidence of parliament.
What has happened this week is that Mr. Harper no longer has the confidence of the Canadian Parliament.
This is not 'the Liberals' taking over. It is the coalition that has decided how it will govern, that it represents a majority of the sitting members, that it has a leader who is ready to be the PM, and that it is prepared to govern.
Today the headline in the Vancouver Sun shrieks: PARLIAMENT IN CRISIS. This is simply not true, and I think it is irresponsible fear mongering in the press. I would say this is parliamentary democracy in action. We will have a smooth transfer of authority, and the majority of Canadians will be represented in Parliament by the new coalition.
Someone should be celebrating the fact that Canadians have a form of government where this can happen without a bloodbath and without waiting until the end of a dysfunctional term of office.
I particularly appreciate the fact that the success of the coalition depends on its members sorting out their differences. I suspect that a majority of Canadians will see the kind of decisions and direction that they really want. No longer will a minority have almost dictatorial powers.
Frankly, I am more interested in how this unfolds than I am in who governs. All of the Members of Parliament were recently chosen by the people of Canada. I think the members are now doing their jobs with passion. I am more worried about uninformed (mainly by the press) public opinion somehow interrupting the process of Parliament than I am in seeing our MPs govern poorly.
And now I'm waiting to read Bill Tielman's views on all of this.
Both the Liberals and the NDP say Mae is not a factor in anything they are doing.
Bill, I get the feeling that if the NDP ever won an election you'd demand they decline.
You're no longer counted among the progressives, that's for sure.
" All of the Members of Parliament were recently chosen by the people of Canada. I think the members are now doing their jobs with passion. I am more worried about uninformed (mainly by the press) public opinion somehow interrupting the process of Parliament than I am in seeing our MPs govern poorly.
The above,like the rest of the post from Robert Ballantyne expresses eloquently what was going on.
I'll have to start taking a prybar to the Post Office again, just to pry out the oncoming deluge of garbage as the PsuedoCons once again crank up their abuse of the Parliamentary franking privilege to insult my intelligence with nonsense from MPs I've never even heard of in order to shape public opinion in their permanent 24/7 Karl Rove style approach to holding power in order to not govern, but eliminate government.
Having already succeeded in "interrupting the process of Parliament" they can now concentrate on the important stuff like character assassination and the Balkanization of Canada - after they've sold off or given to their friends all of the good stuff.
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