COALITION GOVERNMENT?

Well, now you have it - a chance for the coalition to actually happen. Dion has stepped down, LeBlanc has backed off, and it's between Ignatief and Rae, who I think should back down, too. Sorry, long memories of him abound out west.

The coalition stands its best chance now that Dion is out, sorry to say, and I think that it could become quite viable. January 26/7, here they come!

Ignatief has also stated that he would consider the budget. It is quite possible that the coalition will slowly die. I am thrilled that Dion is stepping aside.

Ignatieff worries me, though. He's a real attack dog. I just hope he doesn't alienate people the way Harper has done.

I need to research him. Maybe LeBlanc would have better but Ig seems to be the party favourite.

I don't know if it's some much that he's the party favorite as that he has his supporters better organized . . . Rae is calling for a "more democratic" selection process, and warning, justifiably it seems to me, that they don't need to rush to find a replacement for Dion. One could say that Rae is just indulging sour grapes, but Ignatieff was very well organized for the last party leadership convention, and seemed to have thought he had it all sewn up, and then became enraged when he couldn't pull it off. I'm not at all sure that he is the party favorite. Maybe a liberal "dark horse" would be better . . .

charest wins third mandate, seems set to get a majority

wonder how that will affect the happenings in ottawa

Food is more interesting than politics?

I think if he becomes leader, it will be a certainty. I've been listening to commentary on CKNW out here, and it seems that Iggy isn't much in favour of a coalition.

I am still convinced Harper's budget will pass and all of this coalition talk will simply blow over, especially if there will be input allowed from the other parties.

Well, hot off the press this morning. I just heard on CKNW that Bob Rae has withdrawn from the Liberal leadership race. I'm sure he made this decision all by himself and wasn't convinced by anyone else.

So, this leaves the path open for Iggy to have a coronation. We will see now how quickly the coalition idea will end up in the dust bin, eh?

Yeah, I've been reading about him and some of what I read has me concerned.

From what I've heard, he seems to be more open to working with Harper and working cooperatively on the upcoming budget for January.

I don't know. Maybe that's not such a bad thing. I wasn't really convinced either way that the coalition idea was going to pan out anyways.

I'm still sticking with my prediction that Harper's budget will pass and the coalition will die. Now that Iggy's leadership has been guaranteed, even more so now.

This is the first print I’ve been able to find:



http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/081209/national/liberal_leadership

I've been listening to Ontario Today . . . there's a lot of Liberals out there who are really p.o.'ed. They are incensed that there wasn't some sort of democratic process for the liberal membership to choose the leader, as opposed to having the leaders chosen behind closed door by the mere 77 Liberal mps.

Add me to the incensed list.

But I'm not mad at Bob.

I'd suspect that Mr. Rae was subject to a good deal of insider pressure.

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Listening to Tory commentators over the last few days, and listening to Harper this afternoon, it is just incredible to me the position they're attempting to take. I strongly suspect Harper intends to try to fight a new election after the Commons come back in January. Today (and i timed it), he spoke for seven minutes about the treachery of the opposition, how they (in so many words) lulled the Tories into a false sense of their willingness to cooperate by voting for the throne speech, and then pounced on the poor, unsuspecting but devoted Tories over their economic plan. Economic plan ? ! ? ! ? What economic plan ? ! ? ! ? He totally avoided a discussion of abandoning a pay equity bill, prohibiting strikes by public employees and an end to subsidies to political parties until the interviewer forced it one him by asking him point blank about the supplementary financial plan. Then he hemmed and hawed, and decided to make the elimination of subsidies the central issue, ignoring the other two points. His comment was that "the Canadian people" completely support the Tory position, and continued to try to create an image of unsuspecting Tories, devoted only to the well-being of the Canadian people, suddenly sucker-punched by the opposition, who were planning a coup all along. I can't for a moment think that anyone that intelligent (and he's certainly not stupid) actually believes that the Canadian people, or even a significant fraction of the Canadian people, support the Tory attempt to eliminate subsidies to the political parties, a measure which can only benefit the Tories. I strongly suspect he's attempting to position himself for another election, and that he will attempt to blame the "necessity" of another election on the Liberals and the New Democrats.

Man, the bullsh*t was so deep . . .

set wrote :



i bet they had an extra large pressure cooker to fit bob into !

mrs h discarded a PRESTO some years ago - perhaps they used it to quickly get bob's co-operation - dinner ready in 20 minutes !

I just sent an email to Maria Minna.

Any "blink" from Ignatieff to Harper, and they've lost me permanently.

I will be out actively campaigning against the Conservatives and Liberals if that comes to pass.

I will be beyond furious.

I was spitting while I was listening to that Harper interview.

Then I got to scowl at his motorcade on the Gardiner. He gets to disrupt the commute home for thousands of people because he went to Ted Rogers funeral. Let him take the transit to the airport, or use the island airport. Idiot.

What kind of example did that set for energy conservation? 20+ freakin' police car escort, cars idling behind the road closure ... grrrrrrrrrrrr

I wish Charest had stayed federal. I think a lot of things would have been different.