Bloodless Coup in Progress

[Mr. Analog]

It will be interesting how the Governor General fits into this, as they have been reporting she had past ties to the Bloc.

Yeah Micha?lle Jean is married to a French-Canadian film maker who has in the past leaned heavily toward the separatist movement and may have had ties to the FLQ.

In a book he wrote he is quoted as saying "So, a sovereign Quebec? An independent Quebec? Yes, and I applaud with both hands and I promise to be at all the St. Jean [Baptiste] parades.".

As I said before, scary stuff...

And yes, Tom, likely another multi-national company (like Toyota or Honda) might step in to take over the manufacturing capabilities in Canada if the opportunity arose, but they may not. Either way you cut it investing in the auto industry is a risk.

[Tom]

And yes, Tom, likely another multi-national company (like Toyota or Honda) might step in to take over the manufacturing capabilities in Canada if the opportunity arose, but they may not. Either way you cut it investing in the auto industry is a risk.

Indeed. Its all about "ifs" and "maybe"s on both sides of the coin. Ford and GM _might_ make it through the mess with the cash infusion, but they may not. I wonder if the money is better used investing in some other way, like large captial projects, or schools and hospitals, or heck, get some serious investment into alternative energy and TRUE broadband in every corner of this country.

There are much better uses for the money than a bailout.

[Darren Dirt]

a recent Time magazine article mentioned that there are about 900,000 jobs with GM ... but about 1.7 million OTHER jobs that would be severely affected, or gone, if GM went bye-bye. Yikes. That's just in Uhmerica.

[Mr. Analog]

Update!

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has won a bid to suspend parliament

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7765206.stm

This is a bit of surprising news for Canadians because it's never happened before in Parliament:

A prime minister's request to temporarily suspend parliament had never been turned down, but nor had such a request been made when the government was certain to lose a confidence vote.

"There is no precedent whatsoever in Canada and probably in the Commonwealth," constitutional expert Ned Franks told AP news agency. "We are in uncharted territory."

The plot thickens!

[Darren Dirt]

The plot thickens!

meh... wake me up when the West has seceded...

[Lazybones]

Oh, and I'm not particularly concerned about Stephane Dion being in power.  He's one of those people that doesn't "show" well but that thinks real well. 

Doesn't help his image by recording a national address via an out of focus cellphone cam.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vXrycmlea8&eurl=http://flaggman.wordpress.com/2008/12/04/dion-from-bunker/

[Mags]

I'm wondering about these pro-coalition protesters (and there seems to be a surprising number of them). Has anyone heard a reason they are for that isn't 100% selfish, or 100% stupid? 

[Lazybones]

I'm wondering about these pro-coalition protesters (and there seems to be a surprising number of them). Has anyone heard a reason they are for that isn't 100% selfish, or 100% stupid? 

I don't find them all that surprising, they are liberal and NDP voters that are hopping there party will gain power. They just don't realize what it will mean with the bloc having so many seats.

[Darren Dirt]

only good thing that might come out of this, especially if the western provinces suddenly have "representatives" that got way less than 50% of votes ... is perhaps more and more folks will realize so-called "representative" government is a logical -- and now, clearly, practical -- impossibility.

[Thorin]

Hmm, so the Liberals have realized that their grab for power may cause them to lose a bunch of seats if Harper's response on Jan 27 is to call for another election...  And with Stephane Dion leading their party they know they'll lose seats if such an election came about.  So now Dion is stepping down and it is expected that Michael Ignatieff will become the interim party leader.

Ignatieff does not want to govern, rather he wants to use the threat of the coalition to force the Harper government to play nice.  In other words, he wants the minority government to stay as it is.  This is good, because basically he's saying that he doesn't agree with what Dion and Layton and Duceppe agreed upon - to force the Harper government to fold and to take over governing as a group.

source: http://ca.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idCATRE4B47BD20081208

Now, whenever there's a minority government there's always the implicit threat of Votes of Confidence, and two or three opposition parties can come to an understanding on how to govern mere hours after such a vote was had, so the piece of paper signed Dion, Layton, and Duceppe is (in my eyes) merely symbolic of a threat that always existed.

Too bad the Libs are backing off from a possible election, though.  We'd have probably wound up with a (narrow) majority government, which would at least make the elections happen every four years as required by the law that the Conservatives themselves tabled and got passed.

[Thorin]

I managed to catch Jon Stewart last night, and he actually discussed the Canadian parliamentary crisis.  Sure, their show poked fun at us Canadians, but I laughed my way through the whole thing!  Here's the first clip, about 9 minutes of Canadian coverage:

http://watch.thecomedynetwork.ca/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart/full-episodes/december-8-2008/#clip119658

You might get a good laugh out of the second clip, too (comparing President-Elect Obama's actions to President Bush's actions), and the third clip is an eye-opening discussion about a book called "How To Break a Terrorist" written by an actual interrogator who knew that torture never works (and thus used non-injurious interrogation techniques).

It was a really good show all around!

[Mr. Analog]

I managed to catch Jon Stewart last night, and he actually discussed the Canadian parliamentary crisis.  Sure, their show poked fun at us Canadians, but I laughed my way through the whole thing!  Here's the first clip, about 9 minutes of Canadian coverage:

http://watch.thecomedynetwork.ca/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart/full-episodes/december-8-2008/#clip119658

You might get a good laugh out of the second clip, too (comparing President-Elect Obama's actions to President Bush's actions), and the third clip is an eye-opening discussion about a book called "How To Break a Terrorist" written by an actual interrogator who knew that torture never works (and thus used non-injurious interrogation techniques).

It was a really good show all around!

Thank goodness for the internets, I missed this last night (too sleepy!).

[Tom]

I managed to catch Jon Stewart last night, and he actually discussed the Canadian parliamentary crisis.  Sure, their show poked fun at us Canadians, but I laughed my way through the whole thing!  Here's the first clip, about 9 minutes of Canadian coverage:

http://watch.thecomedynetwork.ca/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart/full-episodes/december-8-2008/#clip119658

You might get a good laugh out of the second clip, too (comparing President-Elect Obama's actions to President Bush's actions), and the third clip is an eye-opening discussion about a book called "How To Break a Terrorist" written by an actual interrogator who knew that torture never works (and thus used non-injurious interrogation techniques).

It was a really good show all around!

Thank goodness for the internets, I missed this last night (too sleepy!).

Thank goodness for teh pvr. I just watched it a couple hours ago on my mythbox (connected to my TV).

I also thought it was quite funny

[Thorin]

Five and a half weeks to go before the possibility of a Vote of No Confidence can cause another election, and the Liberals have completely backed down from the coalition...  Poor Jack Layton, he thought he finally had a chance for power!

Michael Ignatieff, when first picked as the new Liberal leader, professed that he would use the threat of a vote of no confidence and the coalition agreement to force the Conservatives to do what he wants.  Notice that we haven't really hard anything else about the coalition since he said that?

[Mr. Analog]

to quote Nelson Muntz:

"Ha-hah!"