Rocket powered and monkey navigated.  If watching countless reruns of The Simpsons has had any practical and useful application to my life, it’s that image.  I thank The Simpsons for the phrase “Rocket powered, monkey navigated…” because it’s exactly what I need to personify the government of Canada.  Perhaps there are other phrases out there that are more descriptive but I like that one.

Stephen Harper, amid the political crisis, has done everything to prevent an early end to his term in office short of proroguing parliament and just calling it quits until later.  When the opposition announced that it would introduce a motion of non confidence forcing the dissolution of the government, the Harper Conservatives panicked and pushed the opposition’s day in parliament to introduce motions ahead by a week in hopes that perhaps time would heal the wounds he created.  Alas, it seems nearly certain now that Stephen Harper’s conservatives will be trampled by the weak but emboldened opposition and we Canadians will have a Liberal/NDP coalition government propped up by the Bloc Quebecois.

So let’s recap and get some things very straight here.  This past Wednesday, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty stood up in the house of Commons and delivered an announcement that the Conservative government would (among other things) eliminate the public funding that most political parties receive every year.  The justification was that in an economic crisis, cutting $30 million from the federal budget was required.  Of course just by coincidence, it also happened that the Conservatives would have been the only political party not facing a financial crisis as a result of this move.

After the announcement, the three opposition parties (Liberals, New Democrats and Bloq Quebecois) vowed to oppose the update and bring down the government to form a coalition government of their own.  The proposal was that the Liberals and New Democrats get together to form government while the Bloc Quebecois would support them from outside of government and vote in the house against the Conservative opposition to ensure the survival of the Liberal/NDP coalition.  This is a move that the conservatives didn’t expect and boy has it come to bite them in the keester.

The opposition parties didn’t deny that they were motivated (at least in part) by the government taking away most of their money but since they figured this might have been something the public would look down upon, they figured out a second reason to be uppity.  Their claim was that the government did not provide an economic stimulus plan in their economic update and since they were mismanaging the economy, the government had to be defeated and dissolved.  That’s a pretty naive point of view however seeing as the Harper Conservatives have already injected $75 Billion into the financial sector over the past month and a half since our last election.  This wasn’t about the economy; it was about the major parties (aside from the conservatives) being either bankrupted or put on the brink of such.

So the Conservatives responded in an effort to save their government by removing the plan to kill the $30 political subsidy program from their economic update but still the opposition said no dice and continue on with plans to topple the Conservative government and form a coalition of their own.  I happen to think that even though the real reason they got uppity in the first place is now a non-issue, the opposition should still go ahead and form a coalition government and I’ll tell you why.

Harper made a massive miscalculation by thinking the opposition wouldn’t stand up to his government and the spectre of having lots of money taken away from them.  He figured that since the Liberals were in the midst of a leadership campaign and since an election had taken place less than two months ago, he could do pretty much anything he wanted without having to fear resistance from a weak and vulnerable opposition.  In fact, historically, he had a pretty good reason to think the way he did.  Compounding those factors was the fact that the Liberals had been very weak in opposition to begin with often abstaining from votes they disagreed with rather than stand up to government and demand changes in their legislation.  Realistically, I’ll bet most analysts would have said that Harper could have gotten away with axing the $30 million political subsidies program but against the speculative odds, he didn’t.

Beyond failing to get away with a partisan move designed to decimate his political opponents, (Remember that Harper voted for the subsidies when he was in opposition) Harper exposed himself to valid criticisms that called his move political and careless.  His move was political and careless.  You can’t say with a straight face that you’re axing a $30 Million program upon which your opponents depend when you’re ready to spend up to $225 Billion on helping out the financial sector.  Those are contradictory stances and they make for terrible optics.  So beyond this being about subsidies, it’s also about leadership.

Harper has shown that he is governing Canada with ideology and partisanship being major influences.  You can’t do that when you’re in a minority government position because you must depend on the other parties to help you pass legislation.  If the government of the day cannot effectively lead the House of Commons to govern Canada properly, then predictably, the house will lose their confidence in the leadership of the government.  This is no longer an issue of political subsidies.  The opposition has justifiably lost confidence in the leadership of the Prime Minister and in his ability to make the House of Commons function.  Harper’s arrogance has led to this, nothing more than that.

Though I think government is ridiculous and counter-productive, I fully support the Liberals and New Democrats coming together to form a coalition government.  Those who say that this is unjustified are wrong and don’t understand how parliamentary government works.  This exact scenario is made possible by our constitution and just because politicians are often afraid to use constitutional tools made available to them doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t.  Heck, the notwithstanding clause was created with the intention of being used far more often than it is but I’ll bet most of you don’t even know how it works because we almost never see it in action.

Harper’s Conservatives put politics and ideology ahead of making government function for the betterment of Canada.  For that reason, the House of Commons lost confidence in their leadership and are poised to topple the government at their next opportunity.  Their intentions are entirely justified.  Time for this rocket powered, monkey navigated disaster to crash as it was supposed to.

I read the funniest thing a few minutes ago…and when I say funny I mean depressingly stupid.  When a politician opens their moth I usually end up chuckling and then going “Aww damn…I pay that guy’s salary!”  Conservative super hero Stephen Harper thinks that the Liberal Party and NDP are trying to subvert democracy by forming a coalition government and thus booting him out of 24 Sussex drive and back into Stornoway.

While we have been working on the economy, the opposition has been working on a backroom deal to overturn the results of the last election without seeking the consent of voters. They want to take power, not earn it,

So..Harper thinks that the Liberals and NDP want to overturn the election results and take his mandate to govern away from him.  Aww…poor baby.  Unfortunately for him, he’s horribly wrong.

Currently the Conservatives govern in a minority position holding 143 seats out of a possible 308.  The Liberals hold 77, the NDP 37 and the Bloc Quebecois 49.  The Liberals want to team up with the NDP to form a government with 114 seats.  Before I get too far into this, I’ll explain why a government made up of 114 Liberal and NDP members of parliament is more equitable than a Conservative government made up of 143 Conservative members of parliament.

The NDP and Liberals combined managed to garner just over 44% of the popular vote in our last election.  The NDP gathered about 18% of the popular vote and the Liberals managed a fairly unimpressive 26% or so.  This resulted in a combined total of 114 seats in the House of commons.  The Conservatives gained 143 seats with almost 38% of the vote.  While the seat count in parliament may be in favour of the conservatives, more Canadians voted for the two parties proposing a coalition than the Conservatives.  Frankly, rather than subverting democracy, the NDP and Liberals seem to be inadvertently restoring it in a partial sense.

In a nutshell, more voters picked the two parties that are forming the coalition over the conservatives.  It is not undemocratic for these parties to seize power if the conservatives have lost the confidence of the house and because of their arrogant attitude, they have done exactly that.

So you might ask, how on earth can a government function if the official opposition will have more votes than them?  Even after the Liberals and the NDP team up, the conservatives will still have 29 seats more than them…so how can this work?  Won’t the Conservatives simply vote against the government on a confidence motion and trigger an election sending us back to the polls?  Well…no.  not in this case; at least, not right away.  114+143 is of course 257 and there are 308 seats in parliament so what’s happened to the other 51 seats?

Well, the Bloc Quebecois holds 49 seats and there are two independents in the House of Commons as well.  The Bloc has promised to vote against a Conservative opposition to ensure the survival of a Liberal/NDP coalition government thus thwarting any attempt by the Conservatives to bring them down.  While the Bloc refuses to participate in a federal government, they will vote with it to preserve it in this case.  This means that the Bloc will not be an official part of the coalition government and none of its members will hold cabinet posts but it would be foolish of the coalition to not speak with Bloc party leaders before introducing major legislation as the coalition will be depending on them for its survival.

Parliamentary government in a constitutional monarchy is very interesting and a lot of people don’t know a lot about it.  Party politics has so perverted parliamentary government that people are generally unaware that the system is designed so that governments can be formed without there being even a single party represented in the House of Commons.  There is for instance, no law that says the governing party’s leader must become prime minister; that’s simply party tradition.  There’s no law that compels a member of parliament to vote with their party listing expulsion from caucus as a penalty for dissent.  That is simply parliamentary tradition in regards to parties.

If you’re still having trouble seeing how a government can function when faced with a larger opposition party across the aisle, think of this.  The system of government we have in Canada could even theoretically see an independent MP become prime minister if that single member could maintain confidence of the House of Commons.  That independent MP could pick anyone he or she wanted from the House of Commons to be in his or her cabinet regardless of party affiliation.  So long as members of parliament that make up the government can maintain the confidence of the House of Commons, there are no rules relating to party affiliation that are required by the law.

So what’s my point with all that technical junk following the bit about vote percentages?  Simple.  Our system of government was designed to be a fluid and ever changing creature.  the design works best with 308 independent members of parliament making alliances and breaking them as they see fit.  Ideally, the system was meant to accommodate a government of independent representatives for anywhere from 3 to 5 years at a time.  unfortunatly, we have political parties messing all of that up.  If anyone has subverted democracy in Canada recently, that would be the Harper Conservatives.  not that I’m pro NDP or Liberal…I just see no sense in claiming that a Liberal/NDP coalition hasn’t earned the right to govern.

Police I mean.  I don’t trust policing organizations to act with integrity and honesty.

Check out this Victoria Times Colonist story about a settlement deal between the city and a student who suffered brain damage after being tossed to the ground by a city cop.  That’s bad of course that this accident woudl happen as a result of negligence and excessive force on the part of a police officer but what is worse in my mind is that a police investigation of..the police (Since when have you ever been able to investigate yourself for a crime or get your mom to investigate you?) found that no excessive force had been used.  The police decided that the police officer wasn’t at fault after dealing with the complaint months and months after it had been lodged by the boy’s father.

Of course that was found to not be the case later on after a civil law suit was bought against the force.  Oh how quickly the threat of accountability can change a self serving and inequitable judgement by a panel of biased individuals huh?

*sigh*

I really do like cops.  I count less than a hand ful of them among my friends and aqquaintances but policing organizations in general don’t strike me as above board.  It would be great if I could look at policing organizations and see them as selfless altruistic organizations of good fluffynesss…but I can’t.  Cases like this one as detailed in the Victoria Times Colonist make that impossible.

If ever I saw a picture to explain what is about to happen to the Conservative Party, this would be it.

Some one with more imagination and time than me found this…you can see more crazy and amusing junk at odd planet.

So as many of you already know, the Liberal Party of Canada stood up in the House of Commons and flipped their collective bird at the Conservative government.  After hearing that the economic update would eliminate public funding for political parties, the opposition parties starting yowling like badly injured cats in a back alley.  We don’t have any yowling cats in our back alley…I solved that problem.  Now imagine me tenting my fingers.

So since the economic update is a confidence vote and since the parties all got pissed about it, the opposition declared that they will vote against it.  In fact, they were out for blood after hearing about how the government was going to take all their public money away.  The opposition parties of course said it’s all about how the government didn’t include an economic stimulus package in their update.  That’s malarkey of course but they’re running with it despite the conservatives having already pumped $75 billion into the financial sector.

Frankly, this is too little too late.  A minority Liberal/NDP coalition government will last only as long as the Bloc wants it to.  The moment that the Bloc feels they are facing positive political fortunes in Quebec, they will stop supporting the Liberal/NDP coalition.  Aside from that, this is something the Liberals and NDP should have done almost three months ago when the Conservatives threw us into an election.

When it was determined that the House of Commons could not function properly, the Liberals and NDP had 143 seats together.  This was enough to trump the conservative numbers at the time as they had only 127 seats.  Instead of putting Canada through an election as they did, the Liberals and NDP could have been mature enough to put together a coalition almost three months ago.  Unfortunately, our government is run by children.

A coalition is a nice idea in some ways but it should have happened long ago and now, because it didn’t, we’re about to be saddled with another very ineffective government.  the make up of Canada’s political land scape is terrible.  Our choices are progressively getting worse and worse.  I’m 25 right now and I’m as jaded as anyone I know in regards to politics.  By the time I’m 50, I’ll probably be setting fire to politicians…when I’m 80…well…who knows.