Title: An open letter to my fellow Canadians concerning the parliamentary crisis
Topic: Canadian Politics
Written By: JaredMilne
Date: Friday, January 09 at 12:38
 
This is an open letter to my fellow Canadians regarding the current parliamentary crisis, the proposed coaltion, and the need for cooperation in difficult times. 
Ceci est une lettre ouverte à mes concitoyens canadiens concernant la crise parlementaire, la coalition proposée en réponse, et le besoin pour la collaboration dans les temps difficiles. 
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I have thought about and considered all the points you have made long before I read them here and may I say you have covered them pretty well from the political sense.

I love this country deeply and the freedom my family and others of this nation have fought for in its defence and that of others for generations.

What we have seen recently is Canada's political system at its best. Political Parties fighting and willing to risking all for their beliefs. Is this not what we elected them for? Does this not serve Canadians well?

What we ended with from all of this is a Prime Minister and apparently most Canadians complaining and showing that they do not understand what a Parliamentary Democracy is, how our Government system and the Canadian Constitution works.

We elect Politicians to represent us, our feelings, interests, wants and desires instead of each and every one of us having to represent ourselves personally.

At the end of the day all I realized is that Canadians don't see their country's future worth anymore money or effort then what has been spent in the previous election but by calling another election which would require them and their fellow Canadians to have to give up another few hours in another dull evening out of their busy lives to vote and that is those of the few that do really vote in this country! What an inconvenience to the average Canadian who is loyal, loves and feels proud to live in this Country?

I take my children to attend Remembrance Day services every year. I never work on that day. Strange, how few people showed up to remember prior to 911. Usually my family and I would be along with others numbering maybe 6 or 8, my family making 5. One would think if a country truly cares about one�s people�s sacrifice in war that the country could make it a national holiday of remembrance.

In the end I feel that most Canadians are self serving and self interested like sheep in a field. I don�t see this changing until Canadians start to loose what they have! Words are great but actions bring reality and true meaning.

   

I am impressed by the high quality and heart-felt sincerity of both JaredMilne's and jensoni's comments . As an Anglo Quebecer , I'd just like to seize on jensoni's last paragraph and turn to the "Qu�b�cois pure laine" : vous avez repris toute la dignit� dont vous avez �t� autrefois priv�s , vous �tes maintenant ma�tres chez vous dans votre province ; votre renouveau a contribu� � la constitution d'un pays pacifique , �quilibr� , qui ose s'affirmer sur la sc�ne internationale et qui survit plut�t bien aux in�vitables politicailleries de la d�mocratie parlementaire ; alors , comme l'exprime tr�s bien jensoni ci-dessus , r�fl�chissons bien � ne pas perdre ce que nous avons r�ussi � construire ensemble au fil des ann�es .

   

Thank you both for your kind words. My own personal point of view is that all the party leaders are equally responsible for this current fiasco, first by Harper playing foolish partisan games and trying to gut his opponents when Canadians had already made their desire for interparty cooperation clear by giving him only a strengthened minority after breaking his own fixed election date laws to strengthen his grip on power by obtaining a majority, and then by Dion, Layton and Duceppe attempting to form a government after having been rejected by the Canadian people.

I am certainly not a fan of Harper (and as an Albertan I hope that my fellow Canadians will realize we are not all like Harper, Tom Flanagan or Craig Chandler), but he won the election fair and square and he has to be in the driver's seat for now. That said, I am as disgusted by his behaviour as anyone, and my intent in writing this is to try and get both sides of the debate to see each other's points of view, and hopefully smooth over the national unity tensions that might arise from this.

Competition and debate between political parties is only normal, but these are not normal times. The current economic crisis requires that we come together, and put our partisan interests to the side until we get through this. We can't afford to waste our energies fighting each other at a time like this-Barack Obama is actively trying to work with his opponents to deal with the U.S.'s political problems, and John McCain-in a very classy and gracious move-spoke of the need for cooperation in his concession speech.

This is one of those times where we could learn a thing or two from the Americans.

   

I think we have yet to see any results from a change of government..............

   

A thorough and thoughtful synopsis of the situation and one with which I largely agree with. Excepting for this:- If we are to automatically negate the possibility of the opposition of forming a coalition upon defeat of a government motion of confidence and thus immediately go to a general election irregardless of the circumstances then, as we have seen, the government can misuse the notion of matters of confidence.
Depending upon you point of view one may see the failure of the opposition to vote such motions, containing poison pills so rife in the house last year, down as restraint and cooperation or political expediency or running scared. Either way in the current circumstances to go back to the people after just 13 days sitting is clearly unacceptable and failing cooperation, of which we have seen very little until very recently from this government, what other choice does the opposition have. Their job as our representatives is to keep the government of the day in check, to cooperate on good legislation and to oppose bad legislation. If they are to do their job the OPTION of coalition government must be there as an alternative to elections every 3 months! If event the THREAT of such makes the government be more reasonable and less partisan in their proposals then democracy may yet live.
Given our political landscape at this time we are probably going to see minority governments for some time, and quite possibly some coalition governments. They are not necessarily a bad thing, given time our politicians may learn that they must cooperate and be less partisan to get thing done. Would that they were not such slow learners, can they spell dysfunctional I wonder?

   

And we can thank the 40% of Canadians who fail to vote for that.

   

I am of the opinion that our political parties shoud carry a significant share of the blame for increasingly smaller turnouts. Therefore (in this instance) 40% of the seats in Parliament should stand empty, so that we who DID vote don't have to carry the slackards because they didn't do their job of encouraging Canucks to vote (by their actions, not their words -- heaven knows they have enough of the latter!)

   

This is a critically important point, and one I wish I had addressed now-Harper constantly stating parliamentary votes as matters of confidence leaves the opposition parties in a Catch-22 that puts them in an awkward position: either they oppose the government and bring it down, in which case Harper can accuse them of brinksmanship and forcing Canadians into an election they don't want, or abstain from the votes as Dion did and get hammered that way by not doing his job as leader.

That said, I think the tables are turned, at least somewhat. If Ignatieff backs off on the coalition talk, he can quite rightly point to the fact that he listened to the Canadian people and is ready to work with Mr. Harper to take us through the economic storm, and if Harper keeps abusing the confidence motions the way he has, Ignatieff could also point out the fact that he's deliberately trying to goad the opposition parties when Canadians made their desires for cooperation clear. At the same time, by projecting an image of wanting to cooperate with the government, Ignatieff can genuinely help Canada pull through, and the Liberals can take part of the credit, particularly if Harper continues to be obstinate and partisan, which Iggy could then hammer him for in the next election.

On the other hand, I don't think Harper will be trying to provoke the opposition the way he did back at the end of November. If he pushes too hard and we go back to the polls, he'll have left himself wide open to accusations that he didn't accept the verdict of Canadians, and was more interested in playing partisan games while the economy went down the tubes, which the opposition can then profit from. And again, if the current town hall meetings Ignatieff and Flaherty are carrying out offer some good ideas, the parties can add them to their platforms and we can all win, no matter who wins the next election.

Right now, what I'm hoping for is compromise, balance, give and take between the leaders, that sort of thing. Partisan competition is a normal part of the democratic process, but these are not normal times. The fact that Harper could only gain a strengthened minority in face of Dion's weakness, and that 40% of Canadians stayed home on election day, suggests to me that Canadians are fed up with the partisan games for now and just want our MPs to get on with dealing with the economy.

My intent in writing this article was to try and get partisans on both sides to cool down and try and see both sides of the story. Hopefully, with a better understanding of where the other side is coming from, we could decrease the animosity and head off any national unity issues that might arise from this.

   

Then there is something like this:
Obama Can Pump Trillions in the Economy, But No One Knows If It Will Work
http://www.alternet.org/democracy/118784/

Ignatief and Harper may well cooperate (and I suspect they will), but will whatever they cooperate at simply be some sort of bandaid -- or doublespeak? Or will it be someting substantial (which, translated means something the citizen on the street can grab and run with, and not some esoteric "the basics of the economy are sound" BS)?

   

All I want.....
http://ruralcanadian.blogspot.com/2008/ ... stmas.html

   

Congratulations , Rural ! It's a darn good site you have there and a real refreshing pleasure to read . Kind of reminds me of Thomas Paine's famous "Common Sense" back in 1776 . Thanks for the gentlemanly contrast to some of the snarky rubbish we all-too-frequently encounter in some threads.

   

Thanks garabru, as I say in my header “I try to give positive input” but some days its really hard to do so. My initial reactions to some of these stories would not come under the heading of “reasonable” comment or debate!