Down to two

It's too bad it had to end like this, but perhaps in the end Stéphane Dion really didn't have much choice but to step aside. It would have been nice to see him serve as PM even if only for a few months, instead he'll just be a footnote in history ... and a joke for Conservatives from now until the Second Coming.

That leaves things down to Ignatieff and Rae. We need clarity -- say, by tonight at the latest -- about what the process will be and if there will even be a leadership vote by rank-and-file members of any kind.

Whoever the leader is, we also need to get our act straight. The budget comes down on January 27 which means a Ways and Means motion somewhere between January 28 and February 2. It is absolutely vital that there is a united voice and we still mean business when we say we want Harper out and merely changing the Con leader will simply mean same cart, different driver.

I don't know where this is headed although it must be some kind of joke for the Cons. But their time is running out. This isn't about East vs West. It's about Parliamentarism versus the mess they have in America and whether we want to go that route.

UPDATE (4:45 pm EST, 2145 GMT): Silly me. I forget the link.

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One member, one vote (or something like it)

With the news that Dominic LeBlanc, son of a former GG, has dropped out of the Liberal race, the battle is now down to MM. Ignatieff and Rae. However, if the caucus of MPs and Senators thinks they can decide this on their own, think again. One of the reasons for the Cons' success is one member, one vote -- with no "superdelegates" to overturn the will of the membership.

In the present situation, we Liberals need to get our act together and fast. There's no reason why we can't have a quick vote of the membership to determine a new leader. My preference is one member, one vote -- but even if we have an electoral college like the defunct PC Party where each of the 308 districts gets equal weight, that would still be better than the status quo. I believe both of the remaining candidates should put their case forward and let the members -- not the party hacks -- decide.

Of course, I continue to support Iggy but if Rae came out as the legitimate leader after a truly open process I would accept it.

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Parliament or Congress?

After the events of the past week, I have to ask as I have on several occasions whether our proximity to the United States is a bad influence on Canada -- especially those who are situated on the right of the spectrum.

Some of the expressions going around right now, including "going over the heads of the media, and speaking directly to the people" are inconsistent with Parliamentary traditions. So is the notion of "direct democracy." (Even in most countries that have referenda, other than the US, they're limited to a specific purpose -- say, the adoption of the Euro as currency -- and the consequences well defined for all to understand; and usually it's about the expansion of rights or contraction of executive powers, not the other way around on both.)

We also hear constant stories about how bad crime is in Canada and that we need "tougher" sentences, while not looking at some of the root causes of crime. Politicians are to blame for this but so is the media who is so influenced by what happens south of the border that they usually fail to look for solutions elsewhere in the world -- in the EU member states, for example.

It seems to me that if CRAP wants to jettison our Parliamentary system and replace it with a separation of powers system like in the States, it behoves them to say it as much, out loud. Otherwise, don't keep changing the rules on the fly. At some point, even your staunchest supporters will figure out your game and they'll lash back with a vengeance.

So, simple question for Harper: If you hate Parliament that much, why not propose a constitutional amendment to turn it into a Congress with a separately elected PM or President, and submit it to the people in a binding referendum (which would require 7-50 for the first, and unanimity from all provinces for the second)?

Or ... could it be ... you're just, chicken?

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Saturday night music vault: Classical Gas

One of the best compositions of the last forty years or so, and it still sounds fresh today. Odd thing, Mason Williams wrote it while he was also a writer for the original Smothers Brothers show.



They don't make them like they used to.

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Avery, Simpson

First, Sean Avery received a six game suspension for his disgusting "sloppy seconds" remark and he was ordered into anger management which could make it longer. Some say Gary Bettman overplayed his hand here, but I say the suspension was nowhere near harsh enough. I would have benched Avery for the rest of the season and the playoffs, and if by chance the Dallas Stars win it all I would not allow his name to appear on the Stanley Cup.

Avery was a bad enough boy to begin with as a player (his "screening" stunt and his yelling at a female spectator, both earlier this year, are just two examples); but saying something like that, even off the ice, has no place even in crude private conversation. I'm all for freedom of speech but I would never say that about an ex-girlfriend and her current paramour -- it shows a complete lack of class. Say what you will about Elisha Cuthbert and Rachel Hunter but they and their respective current boyfriends, Dion Phaneuf and Jarrett Stoll, deserve better. No amount of anger management will ever wipe out any latent misogyny either.

For what it's worth, the Stars may try to fire Avery all together citing the CBA's "morals clause" and I hope they do.

Second, O.J. Simpson got 9 to 33 years for the armed robbery last year in Las Vegas, where he claims he was trying to take back stuff stolen from him. With good behaviour he could possibly be out in as little as five. Even if he didn't "know" he was breaking the law, he knew he was acting with depraved indifference towards his victims (in this case a pawn broker and his associates).

I have to wonder though if there was extra time added on only because he is still perceived in most quarters as having "gotten away with murder," namely the deaths of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman Most jurisdictions I'm aware of in the States, the max for armed robbery where no one dies or is disabled is fourteen, tops. Simpson has no chance of overturning his conviction but I think he has an argument on sentence especially if others have gotten less for similar crimes.

It's a weird comparison, I know, but fifty years after Louis Riel was hanged for treason, one of the jurors who convicted him -- Edwin Brooks -- and who along with his colleagues unanimously pleaded for mercy from John A. MacDonald, said, "We tried him for treason, but he was hanged for the execution of Thomas Scott."

It's a well established principle you're sentenced for the crime on which you were convicted, not for the stuff you were not convicted for.

I don't wish Simpson well -- he got what was coming to him in this case, at least on the conviction, and I also think he should be kicked out of the Hall of Fame -- but the sentence could set a bad precedent for others who aren't an actor / athlete / comedian / journalist.

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One hundred

To be more accurate, one hundred soldiers plus one diplomat, so it's really now one hundred and one servants of Canada killed in the line of duty in Afghanistan, with the deaths of three more service persons.

Isn't it interesting this milestone was reached just when Parliament was prorogued? Or did DND sit on this story until the prorogation to make the opposition would be silenced? Honest to God, the fact Harper doesn't even want to debate this issue -- questioning the patriotism of those who have serious questions about the prosecution of the war -- indicates something close to ... I'm not going to use the word, but next month Parade comes out with their annual list of the world's worst leaders and don't be surprised if with this act of Mugabe-like suppression, Harper is a first-time entry.

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Europe cuts rates, Harper does s@$* all

While we're caught up in one hell of mess here in Canada, things are getting really desperate in Europe. In Britain the rate banks charge each other has dropped to a 57 year low -- two percent. That's a cut of a full percent. Meanwhile, the ECB cut the rate in the Eurozone to 2¼%, a ¾% cut.

I don't know about you but when rate cuts get to the point where they're practically giving it away then it's a sign of major trouble, but at least they're doing something. And all we get in Canada is seven more weeks of suspended animation.

UPDATE 6:21 pm 2321 GMT: I was going to write a letter to the PM telling him exactly how I feel, but I don't know how to spell "blow a raspberry." Actually, it's something else but I have a bit more class than that. I'll let his conscience, such that it is, get the better of him.

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Prorogation, the last refuge of the scoundrel

But the idiot got his way. The fact that the meeting took nearly two hours tells me that he must have gotten a really hard time from the GG. The way things were going, I wouldn't have been surprised if he had invoked martial law.

Well, he's bought himself some time, but when Parliament resumes on January 26th it's absolutely vital that the united front sticks and I believe that it will. At this point, it's obvious nothing he can offer in the budget is going to be acceptable.

I do not, however, looking forward to more instability which is what we're going to have for at least another two months. We could have resolved this last week, if they had actually introduced a real budget that would offer something rather than do even more ass sitting.

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Take some advice from Eddie, Steve

I see View from the Left had the same idea as me, but here goes:

One little quirk in our constitution says that there only has to be one -- one -- pro forma sitting of the House of Commons every twelve months. With a fixed term law (already violated by PMS), theoretically that means that Harper could ask for four straight prorogations with throne speeches then go to the polls in 2012 without the House ever having done any business. In the meantime, any appropriations would be done by Governor Generals' Warrants -- normally only used during a general election.

In other words, Harper could effectively rule as a dictator for four years. And he could use those "special" appropriations to ram through the hidden agenda we know he has.

Or he can actually take heed some open advice from a former Governor General -- and the second youngest in our history to serve in the role -- Manitoba NDer Eddie Schreyer who said a prorogation is just a stalling tactic. A cooling off period may be fine, but to stall for up to a year would be unacceptable. Schreyer noted that in 1979 he accepted Joe Clark's resignation but asked for a few hours to see if a coalition could be formed among the remaining parties. Of course we know that the Social Credit / Crédetistes (an antecedent of the Reform Party) were not going to do any sort of deal with the Liberals and NDP even they had united to vote down Clark's budget, so when "time expired" only then did Schreyer on the following day give the go-ahead for an election.

In other words, said Schreyer: Face the music, buddy.

To delay the inevitable would be setting a bad precedent. This is clear.

Bob Fife said last night on the Con TV Network that if Michaëlle Jean refuses to prorogue -- and precedent actually does dictates she should not -- Harper might immediately resign. Good. Her Excellency should call his bluff.

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No apologies, no concessions ...

NO EFFING DEAL!!!!!

Especially now that we know that Stockwell Day tried to do a deal with Duceppe and Alexa McDonough in 2000. How could you be for a coalition with the Bloc and NDP before you were against it?

How could you be for free votes before you were against them?

And why it is you say that in English that they're selling out to separatists, while telling the Bloc in French they're selling out to federalists?

You can't have it both ways, pal.

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How Harper can save himself

Much as I would like to see a Liberal-NDP coalition government go ahead, I believe Mr. Harper has one chance to save himself. Only one, and it's a longshot, but here goes:

Mr. Prime Minister, please go on live television and admit you were wrong not to introduce a stimulus package at this time. Admit you were wrong about public financing, public service collective bargaining and pay equity. Admit you were wrong to question the patriotism of your opponents. And, most of all, just say the two words -- the only two words -- that could possibly save you: "I'm sorry."

If you've bothered to read any of a number of fantasy novel series over the years, what ultimately befalls the prime antagonist is his or her inability to feel or express any remorse. The problem is the process of remorse is enough to kill someone. Is that what you're afraid of, sir? That you might die in the process? Or your soul might die but you're still alive (even worse)?

You promised a more collaborative Parliament. You can be given a second chance if -- and only if -- you admit to hubris, before it gets to you; and go back to what you promised.

Otherwise, face the music like a man, and resign like a man rather than take the coward's way out with prorogation or dissolution.

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Uh, December 6th guys?

So the Conservatives want to hold mass rallies against a possible left-wing coalition on December 6, which also happens to be the day that Parliament years ago designated as the National Action Day on Violence Against Women -- in honour of the fourteen female engineering students slaughtered in Montréal in 1989.

A day not only to commemerate what happened and continues to happen, the insidious war against women, but also to speak out against the millions of men and women -- but mostly men -- who sit idly by and do nothing just as the men in that classroom did nothing, nineteen years ago.

Set aside the timing, which is horribly wrong. This speaks strongly to the anti-women agenda of the Conservative Party, one of the reasons I turned away from the Reform Party years ago. And it's just another reason why the government needs to go down -- or the Prime Minister ought to resign before he is forced to.

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WKRP is back on the air

No, seriously. No word yet if Johnny Fever is going to do the 6 o'clock news.

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Progressives strike back

So it looks like a deal -- the Liberals and NDP will form a coalition with the support of the Bloc. There's a written agreement and admittedly, the devil is in the details, but there's more money for infrastructure, the environment, seniors and children; and the scheduled corporate tax reductions will go ahead as scheduled. There's also a commitment to go ahead with a national daycare strategy. All things I like.

What I'm not sure about is Stéphane Dion serving as interim Prime Minister until the Liberals have their convention in May. Sounds like an accidental PM, but at least he can say he served as PM.

The question is, what will Harper do? I think there is about a 50% chance he'll try to prorogue Parliament by this weekend, but that would only delay what he must know is inevitable. I think he should just face the music and throw in the towel before he is non-confidenced out of office. If he did, history might judge him as a gentleman. Right now, he doesn't come close to that. I lost respect for him a long time ago but he might get some of it back before it's too late.

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Still up in the air, but ...

The details were first reported last night, but it looks like we have an idea of what a coalition government might look like here in Canada -- if it pulls off and that is still actually far from a certainty. The Liberals and NDP would form the government with the Libs getting 18 Cabinet seats and the NDs 6 (none of them economic or the deputy PM slot). The Bloc Québécois would not be part of the inner circle but would agree to support the coalition. The grouping would last 30 months.

The two hang-ups? First, who's going to lead this thing. Will it be Stéphane Dion, or Michael Ignatieff, or someone else who would be a caretaker? The leader has to be someone who can be a uniter but is still willing to take the fall if the leadership convention in May goes against him or her. While I'd like it to be Ignatieff, there is an argument that would give him an unfair advantage going into the leadership. If it was Dion, would he really relish being a PM for just five months?

Second, and it's something I and some others talked about the other day before the MSM picked up on it -- Stephen Harper could always ask the GG to prorogue Parliament and try again with a new session in the new year. Obviously a no-confidence vote could not take place while Parliament is not sitting, and I believe there would have to be eight sitting days minimum before such a new motion could be considered (since the Speech from the Throne would be the first topic for debate).

The only time I can recall such a protracted session was in 1988 after the free trade election. There was a brief three week session (two in the House, one in the Senate) to ratify the treaty after the election was forced on the issue in the previous Parliament.

But it would be one of the most cynical moves imaginable, and GG Jean would have to ask, what stunt is being pulled here? It would be an impossible position for her. If she accepted prorogation she'd be stopping a legitimate debate in Parliament from taking its course. If she refused, she'd be accused of taking a partisan position.

In the UK, there's a new session that begins every fall. It's as simple as that. It'd be a lot easier if we did it that way here -- but Canadian politics is a peculiar thing.

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