Getting Ignatieff wrong
National Post Published: Monday, June 22, 2009
Re: Ignatieff's Lousy Week, L. Ian MacDonald, June 18.
A blind man's view of an elephant never ceases to amaze me. L. Ian Macdonald's take on last week's events in Parliament is at least 100% off the mark.
For the first time in over a year, Michael Ignatieff has forced Stephen Harper to act Canadian -- by solving a disagreement through negotiation and compromise.
Minority governments can function very well if both sides want them to. Pearson proved that and we got some of our greatest policies during that time -- the National Health Act to name just one.
Harper deliberately misspeaks when he says that Canadians elected him to govern the country. Harper isn't very good at math; there are more MPs against him than for him.
Ever since his government has held the reins he has done everything he can think of to make Parliament dysfunctional by making every vote a confidence vote. That's not the way a minority Parliament works, and what's worse, Harper knows this.
But thanks to Iggy, the Prime Minsiter got off his high horse and decided to negotiate. Stephen Harper has lived here all his life and he still hasn't figured out how to be Canadian. Maybe he needs to live abroad for a while to figure it out.
Linda Schwey, Outremont, Que.
Lady, when you have your head stuck up the elephant's butt, you are just as blind!
It just happens that this lady is from socialist Quebec, so I guess we need to try to understand her thinking.
PM Harper, is the Prime Minister because in our system, his party won more votes/MP's than any other political party, therefore they are the government. I guess she is still hoping for a lefty coalition to grab power from the knuckle dragging Conservatives.
Acting Canadian, that would be Iggy, he's just visiting after 34 years. He only needs 2 more years as an MP then he gets a Canadian pension for life! Sweet! Iggy thought he wanted an election, then he didn't, now he might, but not necessarily. When asked if he had tried to meet with PM Harper, Iggy did not answer, because he was so busy getting crowned by the backroom boys, he didn't bother. He told us that Harper was going to wear the recession. So who was making Parliament dysfunctional? Let's see....
Just weeks after the election, the NDP, Liberals and Bloc tried to form a coalition of the socialists, but being socialists they held meetings and signed agreements, and not much else, so poof...the Canadian citizens, acting Canadian, clipped that idea in the bud.
How dysfunctional is that?
The NDP and the Bloc both refused to even read the budget before they came out saying they would not support it.
How dysfunctional is that?
This caused the instillation of Iggy as the new Liberal king, crowned without a vote.
How dysfunctional is that?
But Linda is blaming PM Harper for a dysfunctional government? Give your head a shake lady. Take off your lefty tinted glasses and understand that Iggy blundered badly, he showed only weakness not leadership. He backed down, he settled for a committee not an election. Seeing how lefties love useless committees, I guess lefties might think he won something, but he didn't. Even my 16 year old knows that Iggy is just visiting, he saw the ads, he had no clue who Iggy was before seeing them. I suspect many people who are here "acting Canadian", like Iggy, saw them as well.
The opposition has given no help to the government during a recession, they have been too busy playing silly opposition games.
How dysfunctional is that?
What is dysfunctional is the opposition, they refuse to work with a Conservative government, on principle. Principles, they have no principles, that's dysfunctional.
37 comments:
You're funny
Hey Zorph - how's it going?
Hunter - that letter-writer was just letting forth with speaking points. It amazes me how these folks are stuck on the x percent which didn't vote for the CPC. As for quoting it as a percentage of Canadians, that is faulty math. It represents a percentage of those voters who could be bothered to go out and vote. It does not represent Canadians as a whole but these folks like to extrapolate it to all Canadians.
Bottom line, though: Harper is PM and Ignatieff is...NOT.
I find it a bit rich that people like the letter writer and our "friend" Zorph continue to perpetuate the myth that it is the CPc that are making parliament dysfunctional.
Who is it that rails away about 5 month old tapes or 15 year old videos or private jokes or someone's hair instead of actually working towards the business of the government.
People like the "opinion writer" have obviously only listened to the "talking points" put out by the CBC talking heads or whatever the Toronto Star equivalent is in Quebec.
It is a glimpse into the mind of a socialist that they see that three parties that focus on petty issues for days and the media that egg them on are not the ones that are making parliament dysfunctional.
I wish I could send our "writer" a message about her assertion that the PM "made every vote a confidence vote" and that is why it is dysfunctional.
Sheesh lady - given the antics of the opposition to threaten and huff and puff and to consistently refuse to pass anything; can she even imagine what would have gotten done over the past three years if he had not made them confidence votes.
This lady needs a jolt of reality. Unfortunately she is living in a province that believes that they are owed by the rest of Canada.
"A blind man's view of an elephant never ceases to amaze me."
I quit reading after this statement for what I consider, obvious reasons however my EYES caught the 100 percent part, which simply reinforced my take on the author.
The rant, was obviously going to involve her partisan bias but to equate her negativity with a cruel and unnecessary poke at a segment of the physically challenged, says enough about her that makes her unworthy of my time.
To call her a horses a$$, would be insult the horse!
Hunter, until last week Harper's idea of working with him was to do as he said or else.
Most people do not consider that to be "cooperation".
I guess there is no point mentioning that handbook on how to disrupt committees?
"Hunter - that letter-writer was just letting forth with speaking points."
And Hunter's reply read like it came right off that handy dandy website the CPC set up for all its minions to get their speaking points.
I love the smell of fright wingers trash talking in the morning!
Ignatieff did pull it off though, looking like the calm executive finally convincing his problem employee to stop shirking and get to work.
Of course that would make Iggy an elitist, no? Go with it if you can!
Hahahahahahaha!
Ignatieff did pull it off though, looking like the calm executive finally convincing his problem employee to stop shirking and get to work.
Yes, and seeing as how Iggy (and Harper, and Layton) ARE the employees and work for us, its nice to see that he can actually do something other than bluster, back down from election threats, and flip-flop like his predecessor. After months of not putting forth policy ideas and proposals when it might actually do the economy some good, its a refreshing change instead of seeing him selfishly waiting for partisan political advantage by wanting the PM to "wear the recession" before being heard. But now that it seems that the economy might be recovering, will the PM get to "wear" that as well?
Please note that is "us", not "the U.S." I understand that when it concerns Iggy there might be just a tad of confusion, but I thought I'd clarify, just in case. :D
It is nice to see a balance to the opinion letter that Hunter posted. This one from the National Post.
"Unlike yesterday's letter writer, I think L. Ian MacDonald's Quebecbased reporting is accurate, thought-provoking and, in places, magisterial.
Stephen Harper has been governing with increasing ability since 2006. A quality of leadership is astringency: it may not be pleasant or politically correct, but without it little is accomplished and nothing is achieved.
Our present Parliament's intrinsic dysfunction is not Mr. Harper's fault. There is a large rump of Bloc Quebecois MPs who threaten to carve a separate polity from Canada, year after year, decade after decade. Also, the Liberal Party of Canada, once having had a strong, resilient (even truculent) spine during the long reign of prime minister Pierre Trudeau, has become a strange, moaning, bottom-dwelling, invertebrate creature. The Liberal party has totally lost its democratic ways. Without any real, coherent, loyal and principled national opposition, Mr. Harper's government is bereft of that vital counter-weight irreplaceable in any fully functioning Parliament.
Rob Bredin, Orangeville, Ont."
Of course Gayle stops by with her quip of the moment -
"And Hunter's reply read like it came right off that handy dandy website the CPC set up for all its minions to get their speaking points."
Riiiiggght Gayle - we all sign in every morning to get our daily talking points from some website.
Are you telling me = in all seriousness - that the Liberals or the NDP do not have these things. Come on - we all heard Jack in the infamous telephone meeting last November tell his flock EXACTLY how to get the talking points out - go to demonstrations - organize rallies - call talk shows - heck, he even had a list of "responses".
So don't be so naive Gayle as to think that it is only the CPC that plays the political game.
Oh Gayle - recycling that old handbook thingie? Really, Gayle. Oh, and as for doing as Harper said...well, Ignatieff never came up with anything constructive so what sort of cooperation could there be?
Gayle, I have noticed a marked decrease in the "quality" (for lack of a better word) of your comments. In the past, your comments (although always wrong and misguided) showed that you had put some sort of thought into them.
Even though your comments were misguided, off-topic, diversionary, deflective and never relevant, at least they showed a little glimmer of thought and intellect.
Lately, however, your comments have become thin, vague, and distinctly robotic.
I hope you're okay. I miss your old comments - they really perked me up and gave me a good laugh. I miss those days.
"for all its minions to get their speaking points"
Well, Gayle, we all learned from you. You are the role model for robotic, sock-puppet, speaking point communicator.
PS - Gayle, as always, you tried to change the channel. The topic of my comment was the letter-writer. Whenever you change the channel (99% of the time), it shows that you are unable to refute the comment and, thus, revert to channel-changing...or personal insults.
Let's face it, Gayle, you've tried your shtick far too often. Believe it or not, we're on to you.
What will EofE do when he has run out of people to triumphantly announce "he's on to" or who "have failed again"?
What will he do when he has insulted every commenter by claiming they are themselves insulting?
Where's Eskimo? This is getting boring.
LS - you are making no sense. But, then again, how can that be a surprise?
Hahahahahahahah!
I rest my case.
I expect the MSM will be giving Iggy a hand with his PR during the summer barbeque circuit.
Expect him to casually show up at a hamburger joint (with scads of cameras and reporters in tow) requesting dijon mustard for his quarter pounder. Wait for his perplexed experssion when he finds out Mickey D's only serves Coke products and not port or brandy.
20 bucks says he asks for his burger medium-rare and uses a knife and fork to eat it!
Bring on the grey poupon!
Plain mustard is for dibbling down El Stevie Boy's tie. It ain't what you do Eskimo. It's the way that you do it. I'd like medium rare if I wasn't so hooked on free coffee and doughnuts! Now that's dysfunctional.
Hey guess what else is dysfunctional:
Google "list of Stephen Harper's principles"
Then google "list of Stephen Harper's lies"
Hahahahahahaha!
LS - what can I say? East is obsessed with me.
"Riiiiggght Gayle - we all sign in every morning to get our daily talking points from some website.
Are you telling me = in all seriousness - that the Liberals or the NDP do not have these things."
Do you think other parties have a website where they actually write and send letters to the editor in your name, or a website that lists the radio talk shows in your area, tips for how to get on the show and a list of talking points?
If so, could you please post a link?
Hahahahahahahahaha!
I see the men in the white coats gave the resident web-wanker mystery meat playtime in the yard today. It's probably a welcome relief from the padded cell wallowing in his/her/it's own filth, blaming conservative government conspiracies for his/her/it's confinment.
Judging from his/her/it's posts here (especially today's little nuggets of insanity), what more proof do you need that leftism is a serious mental disorder?
Youtube links? Are you kidding? You are either a ward of the government or that's your Mom calling you upstairs for your noon time grilled cheese.
Oh and Gayle, is your self esteem so low that you have to continually obsess that you think someone is obsessed with you? Good Lord, enroll in some summer extension courses at the university if you feel so unfullfilled.
Every site needs someone to stand in for Don Rickles!
Yay Eskimo! Ya hockey puck!
Eskimo, you seem especially humorless today. Trouble in the sorta kinda art related world of industrial design?
Problems with your ruling pen?
"The NDP and the Bloc both refused to even read the budget before they came out saying they would not support it...This caused the instillation [sic] of Iggy as the new Liberal king, crowned without a vote."
You talk about Iggy as if he's a tincture. Typo? Meh. Whatevs....
That aside, Huntsy, are you also saying the NDP and Bloc's rejection of the budget CAUSED IGGY to become leader of the Liberals?
I was also wondering how "the Canadian citizens, acting Canadian, clipped that idea (the idea of a coalition government) in the bud"?
"If so, could you please post a link"
You first Gayle. Please tell me where I would be able to have the CPC write a letter to the editor and sign my name.
Here you go AG:
https://mycampaign.conservative.ca/EN/4936/77292
Thanks for the link Gayle.
For your link, you just have to check any one of the newspapers or watch TV.
Is liberal supporter, aka liberal haha, really canadian cynic, as Neo at his site claims. And was the cynic really outed recently, and is upset that people know who he really is. Regardless, someday he may have a rational thought and discover that the liberal party if made up of men/women who have no new ideas, offer no alternatives and are never going to be in govt with Iggy as PM.
Unless he could get a larger minority than PMSH he would slink into a corner and hide.
Until all those old adscam/ei changers, reactor ignorers are put out to pasture, they will never win.
The voters will see who he has to bring with him to be govt and we say no way. Hedy, McCallum, Holland, Goodale, Jennings, and all the ex ndper, forget it.
"For your link, you just have to check any one of the newspapers or watch TV."
Well that was a pathetic response. You use a CPC talking point/lie to defend the fact you were wrong.
Why don't you just behave like an adult and admit you were wrong.
Gayle, your whining is irritating. You use more Liberal talking points than anyone else.
More than anyone Hunter? More than anyone in the whole wide world?
Wow - that is some feat.
Guess I hit a sore spot there with my first post.
Get over yourself Gayle.
Too funny Gayle, you have no concept that Conservatives might actually be able to think for themselves. You have to refer to Liberal talking points, therefore you assume we are just sheep like you are, that is why you fail.
Liberals can not understand that Conservatism isn't just a vote, it's a way of thinking and living, that's why Alberta votes Conservative, we live it.
"Well that was a pathetic response. You use a CPC talking point/lie to defend the fact you were wrong."
First of all Gayle - YOU prove to me that the fact the MSM shill for the opposition (read Liberals) is a "talking point" and a "lie".
I was not wrong.
Hunter - I am not the one who created a website to help conservatives get out the talking points - that would be your party of choice who did that.
If you want to complain, complain to them. Obviously they do not believe conservatives can think for themselves.
Hunter, set up a new blog that these losers can't find. OMG, this is bloody ridiculous.
Don't they have a soccer game to get to, or God forbid, a life?
Seriously, you DON'T need to put up with this garbage!
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