sooo...we have the Liberals embarassed by the election and desperate to get back at the conservatives.  in doing so they will empower 2 parties which would happily destroy our country.  Jack Layton as minister of finance or industry.  a prime minister that no one likes and who would only stay till may(?) and then who knows who we get.  the bloc have been promised a "large" increase in payments to quebec and some appointments to senate.  the bloc will be given veto power.  elizabeth may to be appointed to the senate.   the weak liberal party will be pushed around and this is supposed to help canada how??  the liberals need to sit down, stfu, and work with the conservatives.   this is complete nonsense going on.  im sure we would even hear more seperatist talk from the west again.

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.

I think it's fun. I hope the coalition takes over - They seem to think they can do a better job, and if they fail, we have a conservative majority next election.

if i didnt think they would cause as much problems as i think they will, id probably agree with you.

i wish May would keep her mouth shut. stupid comments about Harper going to bring tanks to keep the opposition out of parliament.
i want a vote. 4party coalition or the Conservatives.

I can't believe Canadian politics waited for me to leave to get so interesting.

I can't wait to see how it goes. It's constitutionally sound, it's Democratically sound and I'd much rather Canada's policy be drafted by 3 parties working together than one party with a minority drafting policy which other parties (the liberals) have to support whether they like it or not.

I think the best part of it is that it shows there's still some accountability in Parliament. If Harper was allowed to get away with his subsidy scrap (a deliberate and shitty attempt to bankrupt the Liberals), it would have been pretty sad for the state of Canadian democracy.

What we have here is democracy in action, a living, flexible system.

I love minority parliaments!

I agree with the principle of what you wrote (about democracy and accountability).
The party financing move was a blunder, was not part of the conservative mandate and was uncalled for. However, during the election campaign, Dion stated that a coalition government was not something he would look into. Therefore, since the liberals were asking as close back as 8 weeks ago for the electorate to put them in government, leaving the possibility of a coalition off the table, I believe they do not have a public mandate to form a coalition government. If the coalition believes the electorate wants a coalition, then let them send us back to the polling booths under that platform.

@ Dogs Rule - I disagree with the idea that the parliament needs to either let the Conservatives lead or go to the polls. No party has a Majority, not even the conservatives. The whole idea of a minority government is that no party can in and of itself rule. It makes perfect sense that if the Conservatives don't have the support in Parliament to pass legislation, then the other parties will try to work out a way to pass legislation.

And criticizing this arrangement for seeking bloc support ignores that the Conservatives themselves often sought the support of the Bloc during their time in minority rule to pass legislation.

For the last two years a minority party ran parliament like a majority because it knew the main opposition party was in no position to fight back. We now have 3 parties (which would constitute a majority of the house of commons, not to mention a majority of the votes) working together to form legislation. I see that as tremendously positive. I see a lot more "mandate" in this coalition than I do the minority conservatives.

I think most of the opposition to this is based on political party preference. In which case, Ok.

Personally, I'm thrilled at the prospect of a parliament that doesn't use this period of turmoil to cut taxes at the expense of all else and scuttle any attention to the environment. But if you're a conservative, I can surely understand why you wouldn't like this.

Oh, I know my previously stated opinions have a conservative bias to them. (I'm a fiscal conservative only with very strong green core values) From watching CBC newsworld much of this afternoon (I'm currently not working (and not eligible to unemployment insurance) ) I can tell you that 100% of the people who defend either your view or mine is either a strong NDP/liberal or a strong conservative. We're all drinking the juice to borrow from that stupid expression. One way or another, I hope Canada comes out stronger and more united from this constitutional crisis. I just hope we don't endebt ourselves too much to get out of the financial crisis (which I know was supposed to not even touch Canada, according to the Conservative rhetoric of 8 weeks ago.). :)

Its a gong show. It is showing what the opposition really wants. Power. Just think of the international media when they get a sniff of the overthrowing of the CDN government. This isnt going to help our economic situation one bit.