Apologies to my flist for repeat content

[mousme]

John Scalzi hits it out of the park.

Also, lest I be guilty of talking more about the American election than the election taking place in my own country, I really hope I'm not the only one scandalized by the fact that Elizabeth May has once again been denied a voice in the national debate because the damn Tories are too chickenshit to face up to the fact that their environmental policies suck like a Hoover on overdrive.

In fact, all THREE major parties are too chickenshit to debate her, it would seem. The Conservatives and the NDP are all saying that, really, the Green Party supports the Liberals, so why bother? Uh, hello? They have their own party! That indicates to me, and correct me if I'm wrong, that they might actually have different views on how to run the country. But clearly, that's just me.

The Liberals are being even bigger wusses, by hiding behind Tory skirts. Have you ever seen such bullshit?

Mr. Dion said yesterday his priority is to face off against his Conservative counterpart ahead of the Oct. 14 election.

"I would like her to be there, but I will not participate if Stephen Harper is not there," he said.

Give me a fucking break. This is a small party. They garner about 3% of the vote, if memory serves. Our stupid first-past-the-post system all but guarantees they'll never have a strong voice because they're not one of the Big Two (and occasionally the NDP) and they're not regionally based.

So what gives? Have our political leaders become such damned lame ducks that they cower before a fourth voice in debate?

As forthright said: for shame!

Comments

[caitlin.livejournal.com]

Did the Tories prefer a 'set election schedule'?

From my own understanding, Harper and Co have wanted to turn Canada into USA-North. I don't remember the Tories (Mulroney and them) wanting to do that.

Given the food quality mess currently making headlines as well as the whole water quality thing (Walkerton if nothing else)... they're succeeding. Much to my dismay.

C.

[mousme.livejournal.com]

Hrm. I'm not sure, I'd have to check into that. forthright would know, I'm sure.

[karine.livejournal.com]

Harper called the election in a sort of "You can't fire me because I quit!" He didn't want to deal with the crap and wibbling of the Liberal Abstinence party and the threat of every policy proposition getting debated and threatening the government. You can argue that he went against the SPIRIT of his law, but he didn't go against the LETTER of his law.

Besides, the government was going to fall anyways. The biggest problem I see is that all the parties are saying: "They won't compromise and do it my way." They ALL want their way. NONE of them are willing to work with the others. So, crash boom burn splat.

Fixed election dates are FINE in the case of a majority government. They don't work in minorities; the only way they WOULD work is if the concept of non-confidence was disposed of, and if each vote in the house was what decided wether a policy gets adopted, not wether the party that proposed it is fit to govern.

That said, Harper would actually stand to WIN by letting May debate. Aside from his reaction to her supporting the Liberals (and thus, in his words, have two Liberal party speakers at the debate), I don't understand why he won't debate her publicly. I doubt it's chickenshitedness. I think it's more a question that he doesn't take her, or her party, seriously. Perhaps he feels that the 1 MP they have was weaseled in just to get into the debates...

[karine.livejournal.com]

Oh, and, the reason for fixed election dates is so that the choice of when to call an election is no longer to the advantage of the governing party, in the sense of, "Hmm, the polls look good for us, let's call an election now to insure a reelection."

As for the food quality (are you talking about Listeria?), I fail to see how the government is responsible for this. Yes, public service is responsible for quality control but that's not a job for the Party In Power, because the public servants are the same people no matter who's in charge at the top.

There's also the issue of the Feds being blamed for not doing anything to fix what's actually provincial jurisdiction (education and medicine, for example), but that's a discussion for another time.

[jteethy.livejournal.com]

For the food quality, my understanding was that recent legislation has made it so that the manufacturers are now supposed to self-regulate and voluntarily report dips in food quality to public service.