Canadian Political Chat

[Dogs Rule]

My opinion of Harper and Layton have taken a serious nose dive in the last few days.

First Harper was opportunistic in proposing to cut electoral funding under the pretext of the parties showing leadership in tightening their own belts. Saving 30 million $ at the detriment of a well-established democratic system in Canada is a joke and should never have been suggested in a time when they are a minority, especially having never made it a campaign issue. They therefore have no mandate which would have justified the opposition to go along with it. They should have suggested at least a phase out over a 5 year period. After all, it is akin to changing a contract after the fact since the parties budgets for the last election was under the understanding that they would have a yearly income of 1.95$ per elector. The strategic move would have been to say that as a party the conservatives were going to refuse the transfers and to challenge other parties to do the same in the name of the economy.

Second, the leaked NDP conference has made my image of Layton fall from that of a gentleman politician to that of a conniving self-interest driven jerk.

The deal apparently secures a billion $ that Quebec was set to lose budget transfers, so that will make separatists happy.

Dion must be punching himself in the nuts while yelling "Stupid, stupid, stupid" (that's how I chastise myself) for resigning from the leadership of his party 8 weeks before becoming prime minister. Had he just waited for his party to kick him out, he would be the incumbent PM during the leadership race.

Personally, I hope the conservative government pulls through, hopefully by making concessions with the opposition with a green based economic package (IE deploying alternative energy productions and maybe Canadian electric vehicle projects). I don't want us to endebt ourselves by billions on the same old economy.