Sorry for taking a break for a few days but I just had to take a step back to get a handle on the situation.
If I hear one more vile Conservative talking point based on a lie and reeking of desperation (eg. the Liberals and NDP are trying to overturn election results, the Bloc would hold the balance of power, Canadians have rejected the coalition because the polls say so, the coalition MPs' deceased family members would be "turning in their graves" blablabla) it might just send me over the edge. How low can these f@#$ers go? Sorry for the expletives but this is out of control. Misleading and scaring Canadians to hold on to power is unacceptable.
This will be an historic time studied by political scientists, historians, and constitutional scholars, but indoctrination enthusiasts should take note as well. The Conservative machine has pulled out all the stops. They are knowingly spreading falsehoods about what is going on (I say knowingly because I am sure that they paid enough attention in high school social studies to know how our parliamentary democracy works). They are doing all sorts of tricky stuff that flies under the radar. Like calling conservative supporters, inciting their anger, and then connecting them with an NDP or Liberal MP.
But what worries me the most is not the Conservative machine. Call me naive, but I have faith in Canadians' ability to eventually wade through the BS and scare tactics and figure out that a coalition government will give them what most of them desperately want right now: a stable government where Harper is not the PM. Conservative supporters will still be angry about losing power, but we all know (especially Harper) that true Conservative supporters are the minority of the electorate.
No, the biggest threat to the coalition is the Liberal Party. I won't put all Liberals in the same boat here- there are obviously some that have realized that Harper can't be trusted to put Canadians before his partisan games. These are the same Liberals who were dissatisfied, and at times embarrassed, with how the Liberal caucus propped up the Harper government for years. The same Liberals who were so stoked when their party grew a pair last week and stood up to Harper, that they organized online and on the ground to build support for the coalition.
I feel pretty terrible for these principled Liberals. First John Manley came along and rained on their parade and now a few MPs, like
Ujjal Dosanjh (really, how many times is this a@$hole going to turn on the NDP in his political career) are sowing the seeds of doubt about the future of the coalition.
It must be really demoralizing to be one of the principled Liberals right now. To come so close to taking out Stephen Harper, who has been the worst threat to progressive politics that our country has seen in decades, only to be thwarted by indecision and in-fighting; that would be rough.
The Liberal party is in dangerous territory right now as they decide how to select their leader. They stand to alienate a lot of their members and supporters if they don't let their membership have a say. If they opt for the caucus and national executive deciding on the leader, they will probably get away with it because of the urgency of the situation. But if on top of an undemocratic leadership selection, they decide to prop up Stephen Harper for a few more budgets, they will pay the price (the Liberal brand can only do so much without people to fly the flag). For a party whose membership and leadership contenders are all talking about rebuilding and renewal, this is a very strange direction to be heading.
If the Liberals decide in January to prop up Harper, they will be saying that it's okay to play partisan games instead of dealing with the economy; that it's totally acceptable to risk causing a national unity crisis with highly charged, divisive rhetoric; and that subverting the democracy of our system of responsible government is an effective method of staying in power.
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