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Canadian politics are boring? Canadian politics are not sensational? Pshaw! The last week has certainly thrown that notion out the window. Yes, Canada's 40th Parliament is proving to be a doozy. It's only been in session since November 18 and we've already seen the potential for another election, the potential for a coalition government made up of the minority parties and a lot of yelling. Now none of that is happening (at least not yet) because our Governor General has agreed to the Prime Minister's request that Parliament be prorogued. Translation? Parliament has been shut down for seven weeks so that everyone can get their act together, the Conservatives can deliver a budget and then we'll all be back to square one and looking at a vote of non-confidence.
Ok, a vote of non-confidence might not happen in January, but to be honest I'm not really seeing another outcome. The last week in House of Commons has been nasty. There's been a lot of yelling, a lot of name calling and the words "separatist", "socialist" and "sovereigntist" have been hurled around like they are the world's newest and very infectious STD that everyone is trying not to catch. There was a lot of anger on all sides and it showed, almost alarmingly so. I honestly don't know how the Prime Minister thinks he can cobble together a budget in seven weeks and get enough votes among his opposition for it to pass. As Colline says, "he'll have to work fast and hard to get the opposition on his side or at least talk them out of their angry stewing."
Meanwhile its been suggested by some that the Coalition between the NDP and the Liberals, which has the official support of the Bloc, is shaky after Dion's poorly shot (as in picture quality) televised message to the Canadian public. Can the coalition hold? Some, like Ruth at Rootleweb are skeptical. Politicians on television are swearing up and down that no really, it's stable. They are United. James Curran, the What Do I Know Grit is wondering why, if they had such a brilliant plan, did the coalition not declare themselves until after the vote of non-confidence.
Governor General Michaelle Jean's decision to grant the prorogue is controversial. Some think that she should have allowed the non-confidence vote and let this government fall and some go further and suggest that she is required to do so. Then if that had happened some would have preferred that she call another election while others would have wanted her to give the Coalition the chance to govern. No one decision was going to make a majority of Canadians happy. Quite simply, her job sucks right now.
When I look around the internet I see my country divided. Sure, there are those that are very pro-Harper/Conservative and those that are pro-Coalition. Many people though seem to be falling in the middle. People like Heather A who thinks that the Coalition was a power grab but at the same time the Conservatives need to realize it's a minority government and that means compromise.
If there is one positive takeaway from this whole mess it's that some Canadians are finally learning about the intricacies of our political system. Coalition governments, the role of the Governor General, prorogue - it's a whole new vocabulary. Mushing Mom has a round up of links to help explain the situation. Shireen had a rather awesome suggestion with this:
We need every broadcaster, every newspaper to hold an honest history lesson, sans partisanship, complete with video, cute animations, and celebrity narrators, on how our Parliament was formed and works and on who we vote for ASAP.
Many people in the past week have heard me throw up some rather snarky suggestions for our parliament, ranging from sending all member to Survivor Island to see who would be the last one standing, to hiring a nanny to keep them all in line. I also contemplated getting a dump truck full of lumps of coal delivered to Parliament Hill but thought that might lead to both a negative bank account balance and a visit from the RCMP. Argent of Money Practice had a more practical solution than mine - replace the MPs with SAHMs.
How does all this kindergarten squabbling effecting me? Well, I'm paying the salaries of these damn fools who don't do their jobs. I'm paying them for failing at their jobs. They should - in my opinion - be fired and be replaced
