Rally for a coalition government

Seeing how the Conservatives are having rallies to support 'their' government, the rest of us should be attending our own.

See http://www.makeparliamentwork.ca/ for a list of rallies to attend.

Mine is in Toronto this Saturday. I intend to show up. I ask you to do the same.

Despite the sound legal framework this coalition is standing on, an insane PR war is being waged by the Conservatives, complete with inflammatory radio ads branding Quebec voters as separatists. So much for Conservative fortunes in Quebec... but this sort of divisive crap from the Conservatives does this country no good.

I woke up this morning to CFNY radio berating the opposition parties, spewing every Conservative point there is. Sadly, a lot of people do not understand how parliament works, and Harper is exploiting this by claiming that his government was somehow "voted in."

We don't vote for governments in Canada. We vote for local representatives who serve our interests. A majority of those reps must support the government in order for it to survive. If they fail to, either another election must be held, or, in the case of a minority Parliament, the Governor General may allow another party or parties the opportunity to try. This close after an election (6 weeks), with a clear coalition formed representing a majority of MPs, it is likely that the coalition will be granted government status if Harper fails to survive a vote of confidence.

And does Harper deserve to be removed from the PMO? Yes.

Harper has failed to deal properly with the economic crisis, and instead is using it as a pretext to push hyper-partisan changes he never received a mandate for. Despite the world problems, Harper was holding off on any economic moves until next Spring. Even as the coalition started forming, Flaherty, the finance minister, announced that any moves would wait until that budget.

A day or two later, as the coalition grew, the PMO reversed direction and announced that the budget would be held in late January -- a development that happened only because of the coalition. Harper and his supporters are now claiming that a change in government will delay the budget. Once again, Harper is abandoning good and responsible government in order to see to his partisan ends.

We have no guarantee that the budget will do anything to truly stimulate our economy. harper cannot be trusted.

World leaders recently recommended, with Harper in tow, that countries should implement economic stimulus packages equal to two per cent of GDP. Despite the risks of deflation and negative growth, harper has refused to do anything but to cut services and programs he ideologically is opposed to and for which he received no mandate.

He's always only been in power due to vote splitting. It's time to unite, and let democracy win for a change.

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Update:

I wanted to note that Flaherty's "economic update" seemed to be contradicting budget officer Kevin Page's announcement days earlier that Canada was going to be running a deficit. It seemed to me at the time that Flaherty was more obsessed with not being nailed with running a deficit than in running the country's finances to the benefit of its citizens.