You can't help but admire Brian Topp's persistence. He was formerly the NDP's National campaign director and one of the architects of Jack Layton's "Coup Scam" in 2008. He now finds himself with a nice job at the Globe and Mail often writing pieces that are trying to sell Canadians on Coalition government. He is undeterred by all the polling numbers that suggest a strong majority do not want the Liberals and NDP to form government. Nearly 1/3 of non Tory supporters prefer another Tory minority to a coalition.. When Topp looks back on December 2008, he says "that debate revealed a shocking ignorance, in far too many corners, of the basic facts of our system of government."
I guess that's why Canadians do not support a coalition government between the Liberals and NDP, because we're just a little too ignorant. If that's the case, then I would tend to agree with the wise philosopher Jim Lahey, Trailer Park Supervisor who once said "ignorance is bliss when it is folly to be wise..."
Credit Topp at least for sticking to his guns. Most of the other political figures involved in Coup Scam have either back tracked, shut up, or deny it outright. They read the tea leaves, Topp is steering into the slide.
I promise you; what the PM said, the very next day after an election, if it's a minority, Iggy & Jack will courting the GG. We will then have Iggy as PM and Jack as something, maybe Deputy PM. Guaranteed.
ReplyDeletewe have functioned with minority governments throughout our history. the coalition nonsense is just that, nonsense. it is time for canadians to get off the pot and vote for a majority conservative government. to date the conservatives have done the same things both the liberals and ndp would they just aren't getting credit from the msm. two of these look just like the other.
ReplyDeleteTake another look at your party's interests.
ReplyDeleteConservative parties are governing as the lead party in coalitions in many industrialized democracies right now, including in Britain, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, and Holland.
In fact, Conservative-Liberal combinations seem to be the dominant form of government in much of the industrialized world at the moment.
Are all of these governments (including Prime Minister Cameron's, and Chancellor Merkel's) illegitimate and undemocratic? Should all of those conservative prime ministers back track, shut up and deny it?
I'm unrepentant about 2008 but that's not what I was writing about in the Globe this week.
I'm writing about lessons learned from both the Martin minority and the current one. Mr. Martin arguably played well past the line with the principles of responsible government in the spring of 2005. In his conduct in 2008, Mr. Harper was therefore arguably giving the Liberals a dose of their own medicine.
I don't think this is a road we want to go down any further.
Other Westminster Parliaments have thought carefully about the issues that arise in multi-party parliaments and have tweaked their rules accordingly. We should do the same.
Looking at the political landscape around the world at the moment, Conservatives might be principle beneficiaries of doing do.
All the best
Brian Topp
As a voter and a Canadian, I took grave exception to the attempted coup by the losers of a legal election.
ReplyDeleteThe Jack Layton conference call has yet to be revealed. We wait with bated breath Mr Topp.
"Canada is a very democratic Country, it's not my Country" Gilles Duceppe
Jack Layton and Stephane Dion signed an agreement with the people dedicated to breaking up this Canada of ours.
Now if we only "tweaked the rules".
As a Canadian and a voter I will never accept a coalition with a Separatist having veto power.
Obviously you folks still don't get it, one more reason never to vote either Liberal or Liberal-lite (NDP).
As our Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said "losers don't get to form coalitions"
If you don't believe that Sir "go to the people". We the voters wait, we will not have a coup in Canada.
Cheers Bubba
Mr Topp, if the Canadian way,
ReplyDeleteminority govt garnering support on a case by case basis,
wasn't working,
how is it PMSH has been governing for 5 years and counting?
The NDP has never made a case for why Canada 'must have' a majority government.
'Other countries do it' just doesn't cut it Mr Topp.
Our minority govt is working fine, that's why we keep electing them.
But the NDP saw opportunity to manipulate a very weak Liberal party.
The arrogance the NDP has is astounding,
to think that they can self appoint into cabinet and Canadians have no say in it.
Dippers also conspired to give the Bloc separatists their dream come true, total control over Parliament's agenda and their hands on the cheque book.
If it wasn't 'good for Quebec' it wasn't going to come before Parliament.
Shame on you.
Well, come the next election,
there is no element of surprise.
The NDP and Liberals will need the permission of the Canadian electorate to forge another coalition of losers.
A coalition of losers government would have looked like this:
ReplyDeleteWest (31% of pop) 15% of seats in govt
Separatists (9% of pop) 30% of seats in govt
I don't give a rip how the British Parliamentary system works or what other countries do.
In Canada, we don't hand separatists 30% control of the federal government.
Last time, I was livid! The coalition would have basically silenced all conservative voters for 18 months (1/2 Ontario and all the west). For the fist time in years, we re-elected an ethical, competent and strategic PM who is not from Montreal or Toronto. I contacted the Governor General's office and went to the rally, which is a first.
ReplyDeleteThinking about a Minister Libby Davies trying to run a government department or Jack with $$ or Bob Rae running around abroad makes me fear for my country's future. Iggy is way to inexperienced to learn the PM job and hold a coalition together. He can't even manage his caucus!
L said "he can't even manage his caucus" true! I would add "when he actually shows up for work" Which isn't very often. Iggy = A.W.O.L.
ReplyDeleteCheers Bubba
Mr. Topp and others who continue to argue that Canadians don't understand our system of government conveniently forget to mention the word "plurality." The reality is that the party with the greatest number of seats -- plurality -- gets to form the government.
ReplyDeleteIn 2004, the Conservatives got 99 seats to the Liberals' 135.
In 2006, the Conservatives increased their seat count by 25, getting 124 seats to the Liberals' 103, when the latter lost 32 seats.
In 2008, the Conservatives increased their seat count again, this time by 19, getting 143 seats. The Liberals lost an additional 26, bringing them down to 77 seats.
It's about P L U R A L I T Y.
That's what PM Harper meant when he said ""Losers don't get to form coalitions. Winners are the ones who form governments."
As for other countries serving as a model for us ...
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-compromise-is-inevitable-but-it-exacts-a-heavy-toll-2175957.html
"Leading article: Compromise is inevitable, but it exacts a heavy toll
Nick Clegg must do more than stand loyally by David Cameron while support for the Lib Dems collapses
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
... For decades, the Liberal Democrats wished for an indecisive election that would deliver a hung Parliament in which they held the balance of power, rescuing their MPs from the spectre of eternal irrelevance. [Sound familiar?]
But the grim reality of being a junior partner in a coalition is brought home by today's findings, from a poll of polls, which gives the Liberal Democrats only 11 per cent of the popular vote. It is their worst showing since the acrimonious end of the old Liberal-SDP Alliance 20 years ago. If there were a general election today, on these figures, the number of Lib Dem MPs would fall precipitously – from 57 to a mere 15. ..."
-- Gabby in QC