5
Dec
2008
Little Politics for You
In Canada the big thing right now is the Liberal, NDP and Bloc trying to overthrow the Conservatives and take power in the form of a coalition government.
I haven’t been following politics since the election so I have no idea if this is deserved but I’ve heard and seen things related to this issue specifically. Mostly the number of facebook groups that believe this is in some way ‘unconstitutional’ or illegal in some way.
I believe a quote from this link summarizes that very nicely:
Harper himself signed a letter to then-Governor General Adrienne Clarkson in 2004, claiming the right to form a government if Paul Martin’s minority Liberals could be defeated in a confidence vote in the Commons.
His ostensible partners would have been NDP Leader Jack Layton and Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe — now derided by Harper as the “socialist” and the “separatist” in Liberal Leader Stephane Dion’s coalition.
So Harper tried the exact same thing with the exact same people in 2004. He tried and failed and now someone else is trying and succeeding.
And his reaction to the whole thing is to shut down parliament for 7 weeks, because that’s a very democratic thing to do.