CONSERVATIVES' SAME SEX MARRIAGE BILL DEFEATED

Do you think Mary Cheney knows about this?

If your daddy were Dick "Deadeye" Cheney, you'd know just how irrelevant that question is.

A salute to our neighbors in the north. That is wonderful!

Stephen Harper, the Tory leader and Prime Minister (it's hard to know just what the official name of the Conservatives is these days) made this issue an important plank in the Conservative platform in last year's campaign. I posted the article from The National Post (a newspaper somewhat to the right of Adolf Hitler) precisely because it points out that Harper was absent for the (feeble) discussion.

I am often mystified lately by Harper. It sometimes seems either that he doesn't care if the Conservative government survives, or that he believes he can keep coasting on the aversion to another election by the voters. Hard to say.

Go Canada!!!

People who live under Westminster-style governments (England, Canada, Oztralia and Noozilund) will understand me when i say that Harper leads a minority government. For 'Mericans who don't understand that, it means that the Conservatives won more votes than any other party, but not 50%--not an absolute majority. Because the Tories (generic term for Conservatives--once again, even God doesn't know the current official name) have a minority government, they have to rely on members of other parties to vote for their agenda. Harper promised a lot of things during the election campaign (not a criticism, that's par for the course for politicians), and repealing same sex marriage was one of them. The fact that he didn't show up for the debate seems to suggest that he doesn't really care. I do wonder if that will hurt the Tories--he must think it won't. Frankly, i can't think of any way this will necessarily hurt him, unless there is a no-confidence vote, and he loses--then it might hurt Tories in a new election, but i doubt it will be all that important. This is not the sort of thing to lead to a vote of no-confidence, and the vote was close enough that i doubt anyone is thinking of a no-confidence proposal.