Isn’t that just ducky, Jack and Gilles are willing but the Count has vowed he will not form a coalition. Looks like they’ll have to hope for a waffle/flip-flop from the Count, unless they can force him to abide the coalition now in play until June of this year that he and all the rest of them signed.

It’s unfortunate the politics of this country has come to an troika of opposition leaders playing silly beggars, threatening our economy, the envy of the G7, as well as the stability of the country.
They haven’t a clue, let’s hope the people have a clue when they mark their ballots.

The Count has not vowed he will not form a coalition – he has said he will not form a formal coalition with the BLOC. In essense, he has said he will form a formal coalition with the Knee Deepers and an informal one with the BLOC. Ensuring that the BLOC will still be able to hold Canada hostage with their Liberal and NDP accomplices.

This I would also point out, by an outside academic who has been away from Canada longer than he had been in it and has yet to be elected as head of his party but bleats about “Democracy” and leads the party who has become synonomous with corruption. That they, and Jack “Mini-me Lenin”, are crowing their own stories and then will magically find they have everything in common after the election are considered as serious candidates is possible only in a country with a media so utterly clueless as to support both them and a party dedicated to the break-up of the country. Makes one think the LSD party won back in the 60s and started including it into the drinking water.

This:

“In the event of a Parliament with no majority, the Bloc Québécois reserves the right to support a coalition of political parties, as long as the respect of Quebec values is guaranteed”

does not equal this:

“Bloc Quebecois platform: pro-coalition if minority government formed”

but hey don’t stop tryin’.

Harper has said he won’t form a coalition. Ok, maybe he has changed his mind since 2004. Then again, he also promised openness and accountability and we know where that went.

In a minority government, whether it’s bill by-bill, or based on a broader agreement, even a {gasp} coalition (which can last for as short or as long as the partners choose), the PM has gotta dance with someone. Funny how in humans, marriage is the respected option, whereas in minority government, you prefer multiple partners.

The Great Equivocator, hands down, is Gilles Duceppe.

This is Duceppe in 2004:
http://bit.ly/gLDdT7
“Bloc unlikely to join coalition, Duceppe says
… “The coalition would mean that members of the Bloc would be ministers, which is totally impossible not only for us but for any federalist party,” Duceppe said from Montreal.
Duceppe acknowledged that it is possible that his party would hold the balance of power if the Liberals won a minority, but said he was not tempted to stray from the Bloc sovereigntist agenda to make a coalition more palatable. …”
That 2004 statement of Duceppe’s puts the lie to what Duceppe has been saying about then-opposition leader Stephen Harper. Duceppe has been waving that Sept. 2004 letter to the GG around as proof that Mr. Harper wanted to enter into a coalition, which is patently false. So who’s the prevaricator? Duceppe is, that’s who.

This is Duceppe in 2010 (according to Chantal Hebert)
http://bit.ly/eFSgnY
“Hébert: Duceppe hands Harper fresh anti-coalition ammunition
Published On Wed Oct 06 2010
… In a book released this week Duceppe casts himself as the driving force behind the Liberal-NDP coalition agreement.
He credits the Bloc Québécois with providing the gist of the economic pact on which Stéphane Dion and Jack Layton agreed.
And he confirms that exploratory talks aimed at preventing the Conservatives from serving a second mandate took place some time before the government’s fiscal update triggered a mega-parliamentary storm.
According to Duceppe, Layton first sounded out the Bloc about participating in an opposition coalition designed to unseat the re-elected government three weeks before Finance Minister Jim Flaherty stood up in the House to present his update. …”


Now, in the Bloc’s platform, he confirms his party would support a coalition of the Liberals and the NDP.

Of course, the usual suspects will say the Bloc would not have been in cabinet in 2008, thus were not part of the coalition — of course forgetting to mention that without the Bloc’s tacit approval, the two parties sharing cabinet seats would have been unable to govern.

“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”
Omar Khayyam

Another dubioust statement from the Great Equivocator, Gilles Duceppe.

In Sorel, Duceppe said the PM has gifted $4+ billion dollars to Newfoundland, whereas it has given nothing but a slap in the face to Quebec.

In the first place, the PM simply promised that if re-elected, his government would GUARANTEE the loan for Newfoundland and Labradoe to go ahead with its Lower Churchill hydroelectric project. As explained by commentator William Johnson on CPAC’s Revue Politique, that enables the project to obtain financing at a lower interest rate than without the feds’ loan guarantee.

Duceppe became unhinged. And he once again talked about the evil oilsands, subsidized by federal funds. I guess he hadn’t heard about this when he opened his big trap:
http://www.istockanalyst.com/business/news/5023885/a-strong-majority-of-quebecers-supports-the-development-of-the-oil-sands-and-has-a-positive-image-of-alberta-according-to-a-leger-marketing-poll
“A strong majority of Quebecers supports the development of the oil sands and has a positive image of Alberta, according to a Leger Marketing poll
Thursday, March 31, 2011 6:01 AM
MONTREAL, March 31 /CNW Telbec/ – As part of its Plea for a Quebec-Alberta Dialogue, the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI) today unveils the results of a very interesting poll on Quebecers’ perceptions of certain political and economic issues related to Alberta.
As it turns out, 61% of Quebecers have a positive image of Alberta. Furthermore, over two thirds (68%) agree with the notion that Quebec must strengthen its political and economic ties with this province. …”

“dubioust” should of course be “dubious”

Does Mr Harper really understands the parliamentary system of government in Canada of which he has been PM for years?

Mr, Harper either does not understand his own system or he is consciously preying on the ignorance of other Canadian voters who do not fully understand the Canadian system.

Mr Harper will need some education. Mr Harper, please note these facts:

Fact 1–Canada’s parliamentary system is a hybrid of the British Westminster Model.
Parliament is supreme only limited by our Charter of Rights and our federal system.

Fact 2–In Canada a government is formed from Parliament. Canadians do not vote a government into power. We vote for a parliament. When a parliament has been voted then the leader of the party with MAJORITY seats (not just the one with the most seats) form a government. Failing that there is a party with majority seat (more than half of all seats), forming a government is by negotiation and working together!

Fact 3–The idea of a minority government is a misnomer because a so-called minority government can continue to operate on the basis of always getting MAJORITY votes to pass its financial bills. In a parliamentary system, if you cannot command majority to pass your financial bills, the government falls (automatically)

Fact 4–Mr Harper, Mr Ignatieff and other leaders all have have ridings and they can only come to the parliament if they are voted in their ridings. Their campaigns in other ridings have no direct voting effect on their own outcomes. Theoretically, their parties can form a government without them.

Kwabena, I doubt Stephen Harper needs any lessons from you. Canada is governed according to constitutional conventions. In the 40 elections since Confederation (this one will be the 41st) there have been 13 in which no party garnered a clear majority of seats. Those minority governments have been able to govern by getting support from other MPs or parties on a case-by-case basis, without forming a true coalition, which involves two or more parties sitting at the cabinet table, as was the attempted coalition power grab of 2008.

None of those minority governments were challenged as illegitimate or not representative of public support, despite the fact they were elected with percentages ranging from 35.89% to 42.90% of the popular vote — until 2008.

The Liberals and the NDP, impatient to regain the power they had lost with the election of the Conservative Party in 2006, and seeing the prospects for their comeback were rather dim, decided to regain power not by the conventional way of winning an election but by wresting power from the Conservatives in 2008, when the latter had received an even stronger mandate from the electorate, going from 124 seats to 143.

Minister Flaherty presented the following budgets, all of which passed because some MPs or other parties supported them:
Budget 2010 (March 4, 2010)
Budget 2009 (January 27, 2009)
Budget 2008 (February 26, 2008)
Budget 2007 (March 19, 2007)
Budget 2006 (May 2, 2006)

PM Harper’s government was able to garner support for those budgets, so he has worked according to parliamentary convention. Remember that cooperation, compromise and working together is a two-way street. It does not mean the parties with fewer seats get to set the agenda.

Right on, Gabby. Well-said.

Unfortunately, those who don’t know their history and those who figure that they’re entitled to what they want, when they want, whenever they want, can’t see any problem with the Liberal$, NDP, and Bloc wresting power from a duly elected and legitimate government.

I see this kind of “thinking” in schools every day.

Gabby in QC: “Remember that cooperation, compromise and working together is a two-way street. It does not mean the parties with fewer seats get to set the agenda.”

Exactly. In most other Canadian Parliaments, the parties not in power cared about what was best for all Canadians, not just getting back into power. Not so, this Parliament, with the Liberal$, NDP, and Bloc forming the disloyal Opposition. It’s been a disgusting exhibition of raw and nasty fisticuffs ever since the CPC formed the government in 2006. In my rather old life, I’ve never seen anything like it.

Prime Minister Harper was right when he said that things would get really nasty. They have: extremely nasty.