Personally I think you are wrong. I am no supporter of Harper, but he is better than the rest of the choices we have. He is the man for the job right now.

If this report is correct and this is what is happening, you will see a Conservative majority. They would have to have another election, and most Canadians would be pissed at having to go to the polls again so soon. They would take it out on the Liberals and NDP. This would make no sense for them at all. The Liberals were terrible with our money when we weren't in a financial crunch, how are they going to be in one? And we won't even talk about the NDP and their reach for the stars spending attitude. These parties will bankrupt the country.

Cretien and Broadbent are relics from a era that has past, they should stay there. If the Liberals want to gain any traction, they will forget Ignatieff and got with Trudeau. Sure the West will still hate the Liberals, but Quebec and Ontario will get behind him like the Second Coming.

Under any other circumstance, with the current political leaders of the opposition parties, I would agree with you 100% on the fact that Stephen Harper is the best choice out of all possible options; however, things have changed.

Our government is getting nothing done and hasn't gotten anything done for quite some time, because the Conservatives feel that they can bully the Opposition into compliance (knowing that it's not in their best interests to have a snap election called), topped with inadequate opposition leadership in Stephan Dion.

Our fellow Canadians know that it is not a time to play these ridiculous political games that the Conservatives are creating and the Liberal leadership plays along with, and I think that Canadians will support a multi-party coalition government that can get things done quicker than a bullying minority government that got re-elected solely on the fact that in most Canadian's minds Harper was a better choice for Prime Minister than Stephan Dion.

As far as triggering an election, that is why the Opposition parties are discussing a coalition government; because here in Canada, if the minority government falls and the opposition wants to avoid an election, they are able to take control of the government and run a coalition government (because with the combined Party votes, the coalition would have a majority government). So this coalition is being worked out to avoid another election.

I'm not sure what you're referring to about how the Liberal government was bad with our money in the past, as they were much more effective in managing our finances than the Conservatives. I think you have the words "Conservative party" and "Liberal party" mixed up a little bit. Your comment about the NDP though, I agree with and history has backed that up; however, I think that the Liberals, NDP and Bloc will be able to keep each other in balance...although maybe I'm giving an opinion on that a little bit too soon.

PS, thank you for debating this civilly as opposed to just flaming or something...it's a welcome surprise!

Forgetting the politicians for a minute.
How does this affect the Canadian public itself?

Anyone shed some light on this?

First of all the Canadian Government is not about to fall.The title of this thread is misleading.
One party is just getting a new butthole ripped into them.
This doesn't affect us as a public because we aren't the ones trying to stay in power.Its just the politicians playing the blame game and trying to capatilize off of it to gain more seats for their party.
Its just politics as usual.

Originally posted by warrenb
Forgetting the politicians for a minute.
How does this affect the Canadian public itself?

Anyone shed some light on this?

It all depends on what part of the country you are from. If you are from the West, where most of the money comes from oil and other resource revenue, it will be a catastrophe, since the Liberal party and NDP want to apply a "Carbon Tax" to all natural resource recovery. This would effectively cut off those industries at the knee. It would be the new term for the National Energy Program, which tried to take the vast majority of the money that Alberta made off of it's resources and give it to the have not provinces.

The way I can explain it is imagine Obama won the election, and the republicans and the Independents decided he wasn't doing a good enough job in March and teamed up and took over the government.

Its a really good move on the liberal and ndps side. The conservatives are trying to do away with legistation that would cut off funding for all the parties during the election and only allow them to rely on corporate sponsors, which would always put them ahead of the game. The conservatives have a large private election campaign funding, as they appeal to the super wealthy. So the other parties said, no! We will join together and vote you down. This immediately forces another election, or we can form a coalition government and run things. Its a bit more than corporate funding though, its eliminating the 1.75 tax payers subsidy for all parties, but it hurts the fringe parties the worst.

Very intelligent move. This is exactly why I prefer minority governments. The move they were doing would have made our electoral process even more one sided, and this shows the power of the opposition.

[edit on 28-11-2008 by mystiq]

Originally posted by Rook1545
I would like to see what kind of plans the Liberals and NDP have to "save the day", before I put any kind of support towards them. As much as I hate to say it, I trust the Conservatives more with our money than the AdScam Liberals.

How can you trust the Conservatives more with our money? Do you follow the Canadian political climate or do you just listen to the pundits on CTV and CBC and read the newspaper headlines?

During this year's election campaign, Stephen Harper told Canadians over and over again that our economy was safe...that we would not be in a recession and that the Conservatives would be the ones who "save the day". He would say this while his party didn't even have an election platform and no real economic plan (up until the "Economic Update" released yesterday).

Once he gets re-elected, he tells us that in fact we may ALREADY be in a recession and won't know until next year when the numbers are released; and while he was telling Canadians that, he was in Peru with the other leaders of the economic world standing with other world leaders saying that this global economic crisis will be over within 18 months, only to return to Canada days later saying he didn't actually agree with the joint statement he signed onto, and it would take much longer to solve this economic crisis.

So either he doesn't have even the slightest grasp on what is happening right now in the world, or he's just playing spineless politician games...EITHER option we cannot afford to have around in power right now.

A better option would be a coalition of multiple parties that are WILLING to work together, but at the same time are willing to keep each other in check. Isn't that what a minority government should be anyway, if the Conservatives would be willing to actually run the government as a minority as opposed to just butting heads with the Opposition?

And going back to my point on money being trusted with the Conservatives, that is just ONE example of a lack of Conservative understanding of the seriousness of this economic situation. And if you think Canada is exempt from this world economic situation, you are mistaken.

Another example would be him giving American style tax breaks to big business, while lowering GST by 2% over 2 years to keep us happy, all while he SHOULD (as our leader and head of government) of been aware of the looming financial crisis and not of made either of those tax breaks. Why? Because a 2% GST reduction is nothing to the average Canadian purchases (it works out to saving 2 cents on the dollar, or $2 for every $100 spent...it's nothing but a sham and a way to shut us up from complaining if you really think about it), while cutting 2% out of the total GST coming into the federal government is a large chunk of change, along with the corporate tax breaks, is irresponsible as we need all of the tax money coming in as possible.

Stephen Harper is a great debater and a great public speaker, nothing more. A good example would be the fact that two years later, you are still bringing up the Liberal sponsorship "scandal". As far as that "scandal" goes, unless you are willing to have a serious debate with me about the sponsorship scandal, and unless you know the actual story surrounding the situation, and not just the newspaper headlines you read or the Conservative talking points you heard, then I just wouldn't go there. It's the equivalent of the CEO of a billion-dollar company being fired from his job because a Junior-VP was caught stealing a million dollars from the fictional company's newspaper advertising budget.

However, to the Conservative's credit, they were able to manipulate and rile up the public so much that as far as the public knows, Jean Chretien and Paul Martin may as well of stolen the money themselves!

I think the pro-Conservative readers need to look at this coalition as a combination of the NDP and Liberals, where neither can survive or get laws passed without the other...as opposed to looking at this coalition as another Liberal government. I think we all know that the NDP and Liberals are very different parties, and will truly keep each other in balance the way it should be.

The Tory's got the most seats, the means they form the government. The only way to attempt to form another one would be to topple they Tory's and NO ONE wants another election, except the Tory's.

The Lib's need a new leader before they try anything. Trudeau? WAY too soon for this pup. Canadians will want to see what he's made of. They won't just vote on his legacy.

Originally posted by intrepid
The Tory's got the most seats, the means they form the government. The only way to attempt to form another one would be to topple they Tory's and NO ONE wants another election, except the Tory's.

The Lib's need a new leader before they try anything. Trudeau? WAY too soon for this pup. Canadians will want to see what he's made of. They won't just vote on his legacy.

The problem is that no one else in the entire Liberal party has the reputation that Trudeau has. Everyone is is either a nobody or a never was, except Ignatieff who is just, well...let's him be for now. They seemed to have blown through all the credibility they had in the last 2 elections. While Trudeau may be young and unproven, he is the only chance they have to take back Quebec. Without him, they will never get a majority back. All roads lead through the Trudeau Legacy. As painful as it seems, the Canadian political landscape is devoid of life. We need something to spark us out of our apathy.

Originally posted by intrepid
The Tory's got the most seats, the means they form the government. The only way to attempt to form another one would be to topple they Tory's and NO ONE wants another election, except the Tory's.

Agreed, the Tory's do have the most seats, but they do not have enough to form a majority government. Therefore, if the NDP and Liberals formed this coalition government they are currently trying to work out, then they would have enough democratically elected seats in Parliament to topple the Conservatives, while using their seats to continue running the government (as a coalition majority)...hence, no election would be needed. It's kind of a back door, slimy way to do things, but it's legal and it works.

We should all understand that we are not talking about another election here, we are talking about the minority government being voted out due to non-confidence, and three parties (which combined did receive more Canadian votes/support than the Torys) keeping Parliament running with their house seats/votes. I think the odds of another election are pretty slim