Proroging goverment

Seven weeks ago, (on October 14 to be exact), I cast my ballot in another general election. I crossed my fingers hoping that the liberal candidate in my riding would retain her seat. She did. But the liberals suffered a heavy defeat, and Stephane Dion decided to step down as the Liberal party leader. Although, I would have liked the Liberals and NDP to gain more seats, I accepted the results and hoped that Harper’s minority government would immediately get to work. However, that seems to an impossible task since the Liberals and NDP have decided to form a coalition government to overthrow the current conservative government.

The irony of the present debacle is that Mr. Dion who was posed to step down after the election, is now doing a complete 360 and taking back the reins to form a new coalition against Harper’s government. His move seems a little bit fishy to me. But then again, we’re talking about a politician so what can i really expect. Anyways, Dion's and Layton’s proposed coalition government would spread cabinet responsibilities to various NDP & Liberal party members. The NDP would be guaranteed 6 of the 24 cabinet seats. The coalition accord also stipulates that the current finance minister would be replaced by a liberal MP.

Another fishy issue, is the fact that neither the NDP nor the Liberals discussed forming a coalition government during their election campaign. So why now, when the economy is in dire straits? Why are Layton and Dion so eager beaver to take on Harper?

Unfortunately, I’m not sure why either of them want to challenge the current Canadian prime minister or take on the heap of problems he has to deal with.

All I know is that the whole situation is pretty embarrassing for our country. Especially in comparison to the U.S., the President –elect Obama is hard at work selecting new members (for each cabinet portfolio) to help him run the country for the next four years. Meanwhile, Canadian politicians are still fumbling like children over who should take the reins.

So what’s the next step? Well, Stephen Harper has already made a television appearance to explain his position. In a soft and almost endearing gentle voice (not normally seen) he began to explain to viewers why Canada is a democracy. He argued that in a democracy it is the people who choose their leader and that the consensus of the people will determine who will form government. In light of the recent election, the consensus of Canadian citizens was that the Conservative government should remain in power. His elongated discussion on democracy was basically an attempt to show that Dion’s coalition government is undemocratic (because it was not formed on the consensus of the people). Stephen Harper then went on to discuss his budget plan, how Canada is going to help manufacturers and businesses through the economic crisis, and so on.

Now, it is up to Canada’s Governor General Michaelle Jean to calm the political storm in Ottawa. Firstly, Jean can grant Mr.Harper’s request to prorogue (postpone) parliament so he can work on his government's already proposed Jan 27 budget and put the crisis on the backburner for a few weeks. Or she can refuse his request, allowing a non-confidence vote from the House of Commons to proceed. If the House does yield a non-confidence vote, then Harper’s government will have to resign.

Michaelle Jean then has two options. She can either turn over power to the coalition or call another federal election.

I think Michelle Jean should write a letter to Santa asking him for advice.

In any case, Santa would at least be able to tell us which politician is on his naughty or nice list.