All Conservative MPs in the Commons voted Tuesday against a Bloc Québécois motion calling on the House “to express its full and complete confidence in Elections Canada and the Commissioner of Elections Canada.” The motion passed 152-117 with the combined support of all three opposition parties.
Very clever. Keeps a scandal in the news. Keeps the Tories playing defense. Why do we need the Separatists for this kind of thing? I am having a "Let's all separate together, so I can vote BQ" moment.
Jean-Pierre Kingsley's kid still work for the Liberals, or was that only while JPK was EC honcho? Extremely damning optics, you have to admit.
ReplyDeleteIf the head of Sri Lankan, or Ukrainian, or Bolivian ECs had family members prominently working for parties accused of being entrenched into the system we'd be entirely justified in questioning the EC's impartiality.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Employment Equity now provides a massive financial interest for the majority of civil servants to actively agitate against the party they believe to be a threat to their unearned entitlements. This, too, is logical, and cannot be disputed.
Finally, Canada's elections are a joke. In virtually all countries you need to show ID when you vote; not Canada. You don't even really need to be a citizen to vote. That's absurd. Candidates and parties "writing off" "loans" is perhaps the biggest loophole and makes a joke of spending limits.
Don't let your default smugness blind you to the fact that we've got some work to do here in Canada on our democratic institutions. And to answer your question "Why Wasn't It The Liberals'?", let me just say I don't see a praetorian guard comprised of smart guys like Keith Davey on your side anymore.
Finally, Canada's elections are a joke. In virtually all countries you need to show ID when you vote; not Canada. You don't even really need to be a citizen to vote.
ReplyDeleteIt was hard to settle on the best piece of bullshit in that comment, but this is probably it.
I am having a "Let's all separate together, so I can vote BQ" moment.
When we recoalesce as a nation-state, we'll leave out that half-moon of territory from southwestern Saskatchewan to the East Kootenays this time.
Montana can have it.
BCL. you're absolutely right. Anyone know who's running the good ship Liberal Research Bureau, and why this wasn't done days ago? Back in the day (ie prior to December, 2003), this motion would've been an automatic response, not something that the Dionistas are slapping their foreheads over because they - duh - didn't think of it.
ReplyDeleteI think perhaps if the Liberals had thought of it, it would not have quite the same meaning. The Tories would complain we are standing up for our "Liberal hacks" in Elections Canada. blah, blah blah...never here the end of it.
ReplyDeleteI think Duceppe was more neutral.
The point is the point, and not who made the point.
ReplyDeleteThere was strategy involved, Gayle, although with the BQ, who knows what it might be exactly. Maybe they're as bored as the rest of us are, or maybe they've decided to start courting the soft nationalists/federalists again, since they're all falling out of love with the ADQ again.
ReplyDeleteI understand there was a strategy, but this motion could backfire as much as it could work, as lizt has pointed out.
ReplyDeleteThe pundits on Newman yesterday were calling it a blatent partisan cheap shot, though they were certainly critical of how Harper's gang were prepared to vote against the motion rather than simply abstain.
Gayle, cheap shots often work the best. Newspaper coverage this morning is all about Tories voting down, not the BQs motivation.
ReplyDeleteRIght BCL, but they could have been different if the libs introduced the motion.
ReplyDeleteIt is not like the liberals and the Bloc compete for votes, so I say let us just be happy with the result.
It is not like the liberals and the Bloc compete for votes, so I say let us just be happy with the result.
ReplyDeleteOh, I'm happy with the result; I'm also bored by yet another Conservative assault on "Liberal-infested everything."
Bunch of paranoiacs.