Nice try, but we're not distracted

Jeez. The Conservatives are desperate. They threw legal and ethical caution to he wind in this latest move to tape and distribute a private NDP caucus meeting.

I'm not a lawyer (just a know-it-all blogger), but I'm pretty sure that you can't record a conversation that you are not invited to take part in and then distribute it. And getting an email because you have the same name as someone else doesn't count as an invite. I hope someone goes to jail for this. That's a perp walk I don't want to miss.

On the substance of what was said at the meeting, Adam Radwanski made an interesting point on Goldhawk Live. I'm paraphrasing, but he said essentially that the content of the tape is not really a big deal. The NDP has been fighting to stop the Conservatives for years now, so it is not surprising that they would be in talks with opposition parties at any time about ways to stop the Harper agenda. And based on what Mulcair said, it sounds like Jack was referring to the talks that he and Duceppe have had throughout the years about the issues that they agree on.

I'm glad that Layton talks to all the parties in the HoC about how to achieve positive results on the issues Canadian care about. Maybe if Harper did the same every now and then, he wouldn't be stuck panicking like his is now.

Why that dirty rotten proroguing a#@hole!

Stephen Taylor, Conservative hack, uh, I mean blogger, is reporting from the Parliamentary Press Gallery dinner that there are strong rumours that the Prime Minister will be proroguing parliament.

Come on. Is Harper really that desperate to spend Christmas at 24 Sussex? I know that the holiday season is not the most preferable time to move but didn't he scream bloody murder over the mere suggestion that Paul Martin might do this a few years back when the tables were turned?

The only thing worse than doing nothing to stimulate the economy is running away when the country desperately needs action.

Go ahead Steve, prorogue until next year and throw all your money at destabilizing the economy with your irresponsible rhetoric hoping that you can hold on to power for a little bit longer. But my guess is that you are not getting out of this that easily.

Thanks for the "virtual campaign office" Harper

I just looooove the new Conservative grassroots communication tool for the ConBots. So helpful. I sent letters to the editors of all my local papers (see screenshot above)- right through their website. They did it all for me! And all I have to do is enter my postal code to figure out which radio stations to call and when.

They had talking points for me to use but I didn't really like them so I just substituted my own.

Those cunning Conservatives. How are we ever going to beat them when they keep coming up with all these great ideas?

UPDATE!!!

Other bloggers are posting on this as well. Turns out Marie Eve over at Dawg's Blog did something like this during the election and Paul has reddit'd it to get the word out. Go vote it up!

Prime Minister Layton

Yes. I am serious.

Think about it. The Liberals don't want Dion to be PM. It wouldn't be fair to let Iggy or Rae be leader without a convention. Layton could be PM until the Liberals have their leadership convention in May as scheduled. It would be a way to show the NDP, and Canadians for that matter, that the Liberals are serious about forming a coalition government that would work together to get us through these tough economic times.

The Liberals would, of course, still have a majority in cabinet, and therefore would still hold more power than the NDP. But since both parties would need each other (and the Bloc) to stay in power, they would have to find compromise positions on everything anyways.

Before you start calling me crazy, consider this: the whole "who is going to be PM?" business seems to be a sticking point getting in the way of finalizing a deal. And the only way Harper will come out of this a winner is if the opposition parties can't get their sh@% together.

Ok. I'm sold. Let's do this coalition thing

Wow. This is really happening.

I'm going to sum up my views on a possible Liberal-NDP coalition government in two words: apprehensive support.

A month or so ago, I never thought that there would be a set of circumstances that would make me supportive of the NDP forming a coalition with the Liberals. But here we are.

The Conservatives delivered their waste-of-paper economic update yesterday and not only was it lacking in any kind of stimulus for the economy, but they had the nerve to project a phony surplus.

What they pulled yesterday was disgustingly partisan and exactly the kind of thing that turns so many Canadians off of voting for any political party.

I gotta hand it to Paul Wells, when he nails it, he really nails it:

So the real outrage of yesterday’s economic “update” is not that it seeks to impose on most parliamentarians a change to funding rules that most of them would never ordinarily accept; it’s that it accomplishes nothing else. It’s that in the most dangerous economic times Canada has faced in 20 years if not far longer, this prime minister can’t wipe the smirk off his face and grow up a little.

I was put off, to say the least, by all of this, but the last straw for me personally- what really sent me over the edge into let's-take-these-jerks-down-now territory- was the assault on collective bargaining.

Public service unions were negotiating in good faith to try to find a way to get through these challenging times, and Flaherty essentially spit in their faces. It may seem to some as a rather benign attempt to tighten the belts of the public service at a time when all Canadians are tightening their belts, but in an update that was supposed to be about "symbolic gestures", the symbolism on this one is frightening. What kind of a message does it send when a government says its okay to unilaterally break a contract with thousands of workers and then take away their collective bargaining rights? Not the kind of message that I can stomach.

That's right. I am not feeling the slightest bit complacent about any of this. The Conservatives need to be stopped. I still don't trust the Liberals, and I still believe that an NDP government is what Canadians really need. But right here and now, with things being as they are, a Liberal-NDP coalition is the best option.

My apprehension comes from wondering if the Liberals can be fair while negotiating the terms of the coalition. I have a hard time believing that they can put their sense of entitlement aside and offer the NDP a significant enough role to form a true coalition. But if they can come to an agreement that is fair, I say take Harper down.

And Steve, while you are telling us (as I type) that Canada's government should be chosen by Canadians, keep in mind that only 37.6% wanted a Conservative government while 44.4% voted for a Liberal or NDP government.

Let's cut those pesky elections while we are at it

But after two months of campaigning, I am exhausted. So I am not back to regular blogging just yet. Give me a couple days.
-Dipper Chick, Thursday, October 30, 2008

Is there no end to the lying and broken promises? Sorry folks. I've been a terribly bad blogger. I will try to make it up to you.

So what has propelled me out of my laziness? It's none other than the audacious political maneuver that Harper and the gang have concocted while they should have been thinking up ways to save Canadian jobs.

I want the Liberal Party put out of it's misery as much as anyone, but scrapping public financing to political parties is blatantly bad for Canadian democracy and won't make much of a difference savings-wise.

The public financing that political parties get based on how many votes they receive in an election is the most democratic subsidy that the government could possibly give. It costs only $30 million (a drop in the bucket of the federal budget) and it ensures that Canadians get to hear from all popular political parties, not just the one with the largest number of well-off supporters who they keep track of in creepy detail with a Big-Brother-style database.

And the whole "set an example" nonesense? Give it up Flaherty. Canadians aren't stupid. We are all picturing you and Harper behind the scenes with your evil villain laughter and Mr. Burns finger-tapping thing ("ehh-xcellent"). This isn't about saving money.

Something that's been bugging me as we hear about the need to reign-in MP's travel and switch to lower-grade TP in the HoC (okay, I made that up): if we're all supposed to be tightening our belts, then why does corporate Canada still get to keep their billions of dollars in tax cuts? Just saying.