Kapil's Take

Bob Rae steps down to make way for Michael Ignatieff to be the Liberal Party’s leader. This could be good good or good bad for the party. Good because Dion is not the party leader anymore, good because instead of going the democratic way and voting for their leader the party decided to just skip all that and put one of them on the throne; this prevents any division within the party and tries to show that the liberals are united under one man, and bad because this is not really a very democratic way, and some liberals may think that it was not fair for them and makes them feel left out by making decision ‘behind closed doors’.

I personally would have wanted to see Bob Rae lead, but Iggy is good too. He seems to have had more support than Bob Rae previously and so let it be. To me, either of them are very capable leaders for the Liberals.

Bob Rae is leaning more towards just getting rid of Haper, whereas Ignatieff is trying to show that they he will consider what Harper is going to put forward in his next budget and make the decision after, which seem to be a more politically correct move even if it is not his true intentions.

Anyway, this is the forth entry on Canadian Politics and I do not think it is going to be the last. There is more to come.

So there is a twist in this story now. The Governor General has given the okay to Stephen Harper to have his way; to suspend Parliament until the 26th of January, 09 so that he can have some time and come up with a (hopefully) better budget. In my opinion she’s done what a Governor General should be doing, and I respect her decision. I also agree with her in some sense; the economy is in a bad shape and a little late but good solution is better than a quick but not so good solution. Stephen Harper needs to do his homework and needs to do it really well.

But even if he does come up with some ingenious way of making everyone happy and also throw a life jacket for the Canadian economy, will it really make a difference in the ‘coalition’s desire to throw Harper out?

Right after the decision by the GG was made, Dion told the media when asked whether his stance on kicking out the Conservatives is still as was, or will it change if Stephen Harper brings forth a satisfactory budget. He’s response was that “there will have to be a ‘monumental’ change in the budget”. He repeatedly used the word ‘monumental’ and when asked by different media folks again and again what he meant by monumental, he simply ignored, avoided and did not answer the question. Either he used a big word that he does not know the meaning of, or he does not want to admit that he wants to kick the Conservatives out no matter what.

Jack Layton on the other hand was very clear in his statements, when he said “Stephen Harper cannot be trusted.” and that he was all for the move to kick Stephen Harper no matter what!

Harper: “Oh SH!T I’m screwed. ”

Duceppe has lost all possible respect that he might have had. He completely ignored the question of what he and the coalition will do that Harper won’t, and what will be the coalitions move if Harper produces a satisfactory budget. Instead he went on to say “well… if my grandma was on wheels, she’d be a tractor”.

Yah, OKAY, what does that mean? Like REALLY, what does that even mean? And not only that, he WINKS at the media after saying that phrase. Even the anchor and political analyst on CP24 were wandering what it meant. Is this guy an idiot?

So who is going to lead the coalition? Dion, whose own party wants to throw him off the leadership title? Duceppe – the separatist who clearly does not know what he is saying in public? Or Layton, who is acting like a punk kid who just single mindedly wants to get rid of Harper?

Just over the weekend I met with a few friends of mine and one of them said, “Finally, Canadian politics is getting a little interesting”. It certainly is, but I for one want to say that all these political leaders have lost my respect. I really don’t even know who to vote for the next time elections come.

These guys in parliament should just put their issues aside and just get along and do something for the Canadians. We are paying for their salary and it’s about time they start doing their job properly as guardians of their country and their people.

So Stephen Harper thought he could toss the opposition around by cutting their piggy bank. The 3 musketeers, Jack, Dion and Duceppe decided to form a coalition and throw out Mr. Harper out of parliament by having a vote of no confidence. So who exactly is going to lead the coalition?

All leaders made their cases in trying to convince Canada that what they were doing was the right thing to do by giving what might have been the most important speeches of their lives. Dion, although had a very bad quality of video, something which looked like it was taken from a web cam made an excellent prime minister speech. If only Canada had seen and heard this speech before the election, things may have been a little different. Jack Layton was okay; not as big of a speech as Dion’s. Stephen Harper on the other hand didn’t even seem to be making his case. He spoke neither of what his actions will be to tackle the economic problem that Canada is facing nor did he even mention that we indeed are facing an economic challenge. All he was saying was this coalition should not be formed (I.E. I save my ass and not lose my job) and the coalition definitely should not be formed with the ‘Separatists’. He kept calling the Bloc separatists. This ends any hope of the Conservatives ever making a comeback in Quebec.

My interpretation of all the three speeches was this:

Dion: “Yes, yes … I still have a chance. O Canada, please.. please… pretty please let me be the Prime Minister. Sure you don’t have faith in me, buy please let me be prime minister before my party kicks me off the party throne and replace me with a more capable leader.”

Harper: “Oh SHIT! I’m screwed. ”

Layton: “I hate him, I hate him I hate him. That Harper is such a bully. I’ll show that Stevey. How dare he steal my lunch money.”

Duceppe: To be honest I didn’t see his speech. I’m sure he must have made one, I just missed it.

Canadians went to the polls just two years after they went to the polls and elected the Stephen Harper led Conservative Party who formed a minority government. I still really don’t get why there was another election in the first place. This time Canadians again elected the Stephen Harper led Conservative Party and yet again Canadians had to witness a minority government. So the question on every Canadian’s (or at least some Canadians like me) mind was, “What was really the point of this election?”.

This time was the first time I voted. Last time around, I had a chance but didn‚Äôt vote, but I thought this time I should; it is my right and I must exercise my right and also because you know what they say, “Every vote counts”.

I didn‚Äôt want to vote for the Liberals because I really doubted Dion‚Äôs capabilities as a leader and to be honest the Liberals were all over the place with their campaign, and what‚Äôs up with the carbon tax? Dion doesn‚Äôt really look or sounds like a prime minister, Harper looks like a crook (joke, please don’t take that seriously; I didn‚Äôt quite buy all their policies), and Duceppe (leader of the Quebec Bloc) is a separatist. Jack Layton, the leader of the NDP was the only guy who seemed consistent and well,‚Ķ the only other party left. Although, there is also the Green party, if anyone even wants to consider them a real political party. In times like this when the country is facing a recession, making the environment our first priority isn‚Äôt really a very smart thing to do, and thankfully Canadians realize that and it is evident from the fact that not even one member of the Green party got elected. Don‚Äôt get me wrong! I am all for the environment, I try the little things that I can to make a difference, but looking at the current economic situation, the environment can wait.

So now the new government is sworn in and Canada again witnesses Harper Led Conservative minority government.

Stephen Harper faces a tough challenge with the receding economy and 1000‚Äôs or job losses across Canada. What does he do? He proposes to do something, but nothing which would throw in life jackets for the sinking economy like some sort of an economic stimulus package. Instead, what the Conservatives propose is to sell off crown assets, and on top of that, they wanted to cut back on government funding for political parties, which was their way of showing that “Hey, we know that Canadians are feeling the pinch and we want to show that we understand so we‚Äôre going to tone down our piggy bank (a very large piggy bank)”. But what does that do for the economy? Nothing!

This is just like that ridiculous tax reduction that Harper put in place the last time he was elected prime minister. Are Canadians really buying this non-sense? An average Canadian does not buy a house or a car every month or buy expensive things or buy things in large quantities. It’s only the rich ones that will be really benefiting from this tax reduction. The average Canadian hardly saves enough to make any difference in their bank balance or life style. And just to remind my readers that there is no tax on basic items anyway! This only reduced millions of dollars in revenue for the government without affecting the middle class and low income Canadian households in a positive way.

Oh and I am not done yet. Stay tuned for more!