When Ignatieff ditched work in the House of Commons for a cross Canada hypocrisy Tour, what standing orders do you think he left for his MPs? Did he tap Derek Lee to attempt defeating the government while he was away, such that he could claim plausible deniability if this tactic blew up in the Liberals faces? Iggy takes off, his own MPs force what could be interpreted as a motion of non confidence in our minority Parliament, and we are to believe that this is a coincidence? Either Iggy didn't want his fingerprints on the candlestick, or he has no control over his caucus.
These contempt of parliament motions by the Liberal Party are happening in the Liberal leader's absence. You'd think that this is the kind of thing that a party leader should be present for, but that requires pragmatic policy. If Iggy respected the will of parliament, he'd be there right now.
I lean towards: "he has no control over his caucus."
ReplyDeleteIsn't Iggy going to back in the House on Monday ? Which means he SHOULD be around Ottawa when the Speaker eventually gives his ruling on those coalition motions/points of privilege.
My best guess is that Lee was going to let his point of privilege quietly disappear under the waves. But the Dippers pulled a surprise move by signalling they were going ahead with THEIR motion (or whatever it was). So Lee came out of the woodwork at the last second.
Something like that, I'm not sure about the timing of all that flurry of "debate" coming from the coalition yesterday morning.
Bottome line: there's very little method to the coalition's madness. Not much co-ordination. No grand strategy. It's all hit and miss, quickly made up, tactical shots, aimed at ... what ? Scoring talking points.