Sickness and Politics

Well, I finally got laid out by a nasty cold. Tis the season I guess. So yesterday, while sitting indoors and watching the snow fall, I had time to read up on the mess on Parliament Hill. I've been following it with mild interest of late, I guess I kind of got my fill with the re-election of Harper here and Obama's victory in the US. What distresses me is that people are taking sides here, taking the bait from Harper's plea to "preserve the Charter". It bothers me that the opposition parties need to form a coalition to rival Harper, but then again, it wasn't a surprise. I figured as much after the last election. Every other party opposes Harper's agenda but divided, they simply don't have the votes to take him down. If we were a two-party state (God forbid!) Harper would have lost. He simply doesn't have majority support. And his pleas and criticism frankly make me laugh, saying the other parties are trying to hijack the government or take power without earning it. This is a man who has done every dirty trick in the book to take and hold power. When in oppposition, he dedicated himself solely to the task of undermining Martin, exploiting the Sponsorship Scandal endlessly. He then lost the election so he bided his time, exploited the Liberal scandals further, and then called for a non-confidence vote when they were weakest. Once in power, he stole from every other party while silently governing from the right in order to stay in power. But essentially, he's done nothing. He's declared Quebec a nation within a nation (woohoo! mere words!) He apologized to the First Nations for the Residential School system (more words). He's prolongued our involvement in Afghanistan while doing nothing to address our problems there, made every motion a confidence vote, and rough shod over the other parties concerns. When he called a non-confidence vote, he said it was because of the Liberals unwillingness to work with the opposition. Now, he's basically daring all the others to call a non-confidence vote because he thinks he can get away with it. And let's not forget Harper performed a little coaltion of his own back when the Alliance and emasculated Conservative party decided to "unit the right".
In short, he is Prime Minister only because people were tired of hearing about Liberal scandal. He's remained Prime Minister by pandering, theft and because of a lack of viable alternatives. And he's clearly a hypocrite. Dion was no leader, that was clear, and people don't seem to be able to vote for NDP or Green federally. Too left leaning, they seem to think, even though Layton had the only clear and solid agenda. The Liberals have the federal support, the NDP have the agenda, and the Greens have good ideas, so a coalition seems like just the thing. This was exactlty what the united right did, precisely that. The Conservatives were weak but had a federal base, the Alliance had grassroots support but no leader, so they came together. Badabing, badaboom! So the next time people talk about supporting the Charter, I'd like to remind them that there is nothing unconstitutional about a coalition. It if each party has the support and wants to come together, so be it. Harper did it, the Opposition can do it.