Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Harper's Better Democracy



But that was sooooo 2006.

18 appointments in one day. No PM in history has even come close to that.

Again, as I've said before, the GG should be fired if she allows these appointments to go through without the confidence of the House.

Speaking of which, I'm inclined to believe Harper will seek and receive that confidence in January even thought the budget will probably still contain the abolishment of funding for political parties. The Liberal Party simply isn't ready for a coalition or an election. My guess is 20 MPs will be very flu-ridden on the
27th of January.

7 comments:

bigcitylib said...

The Bill can be amended past all recognition in Committee.

Robert G. Harvie, Q.C. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Robert G. Harvie, Q.C. said...

..you are much to cynical James, I would imagine even in his current apparently manic state, Harper will not try to cut funding again.. but, I am truly saddened that, if Harper was going to go ahead with this, that he wouldn't make at least a modest effort to be truly non-partisan. I can't say that I feel any better about the Liberals than I did when I felt John Turner was stabbed in the back.. but, I'm truly ashamed today that the party I support didn't measure up to my expectations of something more.

Mr. Harper, you had a choice sir.

James Curran said...

You think it's easy living in the head of Harper and Flanigan Rob? Picture the migraines I must get.

Mark Richard Francis said...

"...the budget will probably still contain the abolishment of funding for political parties."

It's a myth, of course, that eliminating the per-vote funding represents an abolishment of public funding for political parties. It only represents one chunk. There are numerous subsidies, including the Conservative's best friend, the political donation tax credit.

Harper is duping the public into thinking that there is only the one subsidy system, while he plots to leave alone the subsidy systems which help his party the most.

By not attacking Harper effectively for this, they are potentially letting him take credit for taking all of the political parties out of the trough. This is, of course, not true.

The Liberals should campaign to let the per-vote funding stay in place, with a reduced amount per vote and a funding cap. They should then call for a reduction of the political tax donation, say by setting it at a flat rate of 33% (it is currently on a sliding scale). The point isn't to get the changes, the point is to raise awareness that there is more than one subsidy system in place.

James Curran said...

Except for one thing Mark...The Liberals, sadly really do need the per vote subsidy.

But they will have no choice but to let the budget pass. We have no platform, still no OLO in place, and no way for Iggy to accept help from the Bloc.

So. No election and no coalition. Simple really.

Robert G. Harvie, Q.C. said...

..oh, James, btw I gave you a plug as being the ONLY Canadian progressive blogger who had a positive response to my posts yesterday suggesting helping others out this season - which resulted in a little challenge today to all bloggers..