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.
