For The Good Of The Country

They're not venal opportunists at all. We misjudge them by casting a jaundiced eye upon their clownish antics in the name of democracy. Stretching the purpose and the meaning of constitutional entitlements to enable them to express a collective vote of non-confidence in a government in whom the Canadian electorate a scant month and a half earlier invested confidence, bringing them back to govern in another, expanded minority government.

Stephane Dion could not convince Canadians to vote for him, managed to take his party to the kind of defeat in electoral numbers not seen since Confederation, for the Liberal party. Yet he has the unmitigated gall to engineer a palace coup, to 'spontaneously' reject the government's fiscal report as an insult to the expectations of Canadians, needful of a government bail-out in the face of a faltering economy.

The Canadian economy is the envy of the G-8. Statistics still indicate a high level of employment. The third quarter report on the health of the economy gives figures far higher than anticipated. Consumer confidence remains high, as people are out there making high-budget and lower-end purchases just as they normally do. Our financial institutions are in robust health.

There are some hazy clouds on the horizon and for that purpose the government freed up millions to ensure the banks would have the liquidity they require to advance credit. The government awaits action from south of the border before taking additional steps simply because while action will have to be taken, it isn't a high priority just yet. Infrastructure funds have been allocated and released to keep people working and our civic institutions intact.

But Stephane Dion's ambitions to sit in the chair of the prime minister of the country was sufficient for him, with the exultantly-juvenile support of two other party leaders as self-availing and inadequate as he is, now prepare the country for a change in government. They express no shame for 'correcting' the wishes of the voting public.

Their intention to install themselves as an unelected government comprised of two parties that received insufficient trust through votes by the electorate is celebrated as a triumph by the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois. That triumvirate that claims to represent the wishes of the people, while garnisheeing the peoples' votes for their own vile purposes.

Three parties with three different agendas, who claim during more normal times that they have no wish to adopt each others' agendas. One can only guess how long it will be before they're at each others' throats in disagreements over accommodating power-sharing. A gruesome spectacle, just waiting to happen. It's as though the voters don't exist and haven't the right in our democracy to determine by whom we wish to be governed.

And that primping peacock, Jack Layton so eager for media attention as the thespian he is, has the nerve to stand before a press conference and solemnly inform Prime Minister Harper that he has little choice but to accept his dethronement after the people of Canada voted their confidence in him and his party. Having rejected the governing potential of the other political parties.

It's for the good of the country, these sanctimonious poseurs inform us. Is it? Is that why the Loony has diminished in value, and the Toronto Stock Exchange has plunged to a new depth of losses representing 9% of its value, its largest ever drop? The coalition plans to spend $30-billion dollars in supporting commerce in the country, and providing a lifeboat for the automotive and lumber industries.

Giving away taxpayer money to an industry that has in the past taken all it could squeeze from various levels of government and closed their plants anyway, taking them outside the country where labour costs are cheaper. It was the threat posed by the current government's decision to bring an end to taxpayer-funded political party subsidies, that activated this motley crew to react.

Having first at an earlier date, set the stage for this kind of collaboration which they might act upon at the earliest opportunity. And didn't the prime minister just walk into that trap? Thinking he was cleverly capable of out-manoeuvring his opponents, while not quite crediting them with the feral cunning that accrues to the politically ambitious who will stop at nothing to attain their ends.

Which they deny, deny, deny, fooling no one with an ounce of cerebral function. The selfish actions of these parliamentarians, who grasped an opportunity to unseat the government under a pale pretext of concern for the economy, will have an extended result; that of destabilizing the economy and send confidence into the depths of a recession we might have avoided.

Fully 70% of Canadians exercised their mandate and voted against the Liberals led by the feckless Mr. Dion. We didn't want him then, and we most certainly do not relish having him foist himself upon us now. For the good of the country.