These past few weeks have been a huge whirlwind of political drama. Regardless of party affiliation, political junkies soak it up with excitement. Within the span of 3 weeks, Ottawa managed to run through a slew of "political occurrences" that would otherwise normally happen over a span of a few years:
Just a little over two weeks ago, Jim Flaherty delivered one of the most blatantly partisan and outlandish fiscal updates in Canadian history; prompting the opposition to stand up and band together. Canadians were on the verge of having Stephane Dion move into the PMO, with an NDP leading Industry Canada, all made possible with the backing of the separatist Bloc Quebecois. Then.... (take a breath) Harper then managed to convince our honourable GG to prorogue parliament, which in turn intensified the already existing leadership grumbles in the Liberal Party. The grumbles and dissatisfaction from within the party causes Stephane Dion to make an early exit as leader of the LPC to make way for an "interim" leader. As a sign of party unity, Dominic LeBlanc and Bob Rae drop out of the leadership race, thus crowning Michael Ignatieff as the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. (stop and take a sip of water... and a another deep breath) Which brings us to where we are today. Stephen Harper, with a sudden change of persona, decided that he should extend an olive branch of bipartisanship to work with (instead of taking funding away from) opposition parties to draft this upcoming budget. With this circus of events clouding the media, he hoped Canadians wouldn't notice when he decided to flip-flop and stack the Senate with un-elected Tory cronies, which he stood so vehemently against doing. (BREATH!) I am sure more will happen in the upcoming weeks. 2009 should be an interesting year.
And you thought Canadian politics was boring! This is 100x more exciting than Obama cabinet speculations and Michelle Obama first lady fashion critiques.
As history shows, whenever Bob Rae is a member of any legislature, exciting and dramatic things tend to happen. That's why we love Bob!
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2 comments:
It's a whitewash to say LeBlanc and Rae withdrew. Ignatieff decided he wanted to be interim leader and the party elites agreed, thus forcing out any other contenders.
I would love to be around in 40 or 50 years to see how this particular moment in our history is recorded. You have laid out your version; allow me to lay out mine:
Just a little over two weeks ago, Jim Flaherty delivered a normally routine fiscal update containing belt-tightening measures; one would have required political parties to raise money themselves vice getting handouts from hard working Canadians. The opposition defended their entitlements and decided to stand up and band together. Canadians were on the verge of having Stephane Dion move into the PMO, with an NDP leading Industry Canada, all made possible with the backing of the separatist Bloc Quebecois. Then.... (take a breath) Harper requested of the honourable GG that she prorogue parliament to allow Canadians time to make their views known. Once the public opposition to the coalition was apparent Mr. Ignatieff's supporters intensified the already existing leadership grumbles in the Liberal Party. The grumbles and dissatisfaction from within the party causes Stephane Dion to make an early exit as leader of the LPC to make way for an "interim" leader; a man good enough to be PM yesterday is deemed not good enough to lead the Liberal Party today. With the cards stacked against them, Dominic LeBlanc and Bob Rae drop out of the leadership race, thus crowning Michael Ignatieff as the new leader of the Liberal Party of Canada with no consultation or input from the membership. (stop and take a sip of water... and a another deep breath) Which brings us to where we are today. Stephen Harper, again extended an olive branch of bipartisanship to work with opposition parties to draft this upcoming budget. With this circus of events clouding the media, he turned his attention to the problem with the Senate. After three years of Liberals blocking every attempt to renew and revitalize the Senate, he decided to appoint replacements to fill the 18 seats with the understanding that all would work to achieve the goal of a representative body vice a Liberal party retirement home. He was also aware that the Liberals had used the seats as bargaining chips and would have filled those seats in exchange for political power. I am sure more will happen in the upcoming weeks. 2009 should be an interesting year.
-- History is filled with slanted views on how events occured and an honest assessment would show that while the above is hardly non-partisan or totally, historically perfect, it is as close to reality as the draft of history you provided. Like I said, I would love to be around to see what the history books say about it - like always, depends on who writes it. Merry Christmas.
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