Michael Ignatieff has no confidence in the government, Canada has no confidence in Michael Ignatieff.
Not that anyone should be surprised by that, really. He did decide, long before prime minister Stephen Harper released his economic update–which he caught flack for releasing in New Brunswick instead of Ottawa, that he already failed. Which, roughly translated, means a vote of non-confidence on Thursday. That doesn’t add up to a very solid landing for the liberal party of Canada, soon to be the liberal party of Toronto if the polls keep sliding in the direction they’ve been.
Canada’s economy is on an upswing, partially represented by a drop in unemployment insurance recipients. And, while the government can’t take a whole lot of credit for the recovery regardless to which party’s in power–sorry, Stephen, it just doesn’t work that way–Joe Public doesn’t really care. The government threw money at the problem, and now the problem is fixing itself. To the average voter who doesn’t take the time to actually read the political articles and their accompanying spin–hey, sometimes you can find a degree of amusement in the spin–the government fixed a broken economy. That will only translate to more votes for Canada’s conservative party. Of course, the lack of any real alternative from the opposition isn’t hurting either.
On top of all that, since the end of the liberals’ 13-year rule over Canada, the party’s become increasingly fractured, with first Paul “A Little Bit of Everything” Martin, then Stephane “I Know Nothing” Dion, and now recently appointed king Michael “We Can Do Better” Ignatieff each carving their own little divide within the party itself. In Ignatieff’s case, the most recent result of his divisiveness is the resignation and withdrawal of support from his now former Quebec lieutenant, Denis Coderre. All over a disagreement between the two as to who they think should be the next liberal candidate for one particular Quebec riding–I think Ignatieff might have won that one, though. The candidate in question was originally appointed–no, not voted for–by Coderre, only to be overruled and have a different candidate appointed by the king himself. And now, maybe possibly, we might be seeing the beginnings of an open nomination process for that particular riding–gee, what a concept!
A few well-placed missiles from either the conservatives, or their newest supporters Jack Layton and the NDP, and the good ship Liberal may just find itself in a nose dive into very uncharted territory for them. Now, granted, I haven’t been alive long enough to really remember the last conservative majority Canada held, but I’ve been around through plenty of liberal party majority. Plenty of good has come out of those 13 years–albeit dampened significantly by buz phrases like sponsorship scandal, but that’s politics for you. And, plenty of good has come out of nearly 4 years of conservative minority–well, when we could get the other 3 opposition parties to knock it off with the pissing contest. The problem is, plenty of not so good has come out of 4 years of minority government, too–remember, Mike, that $55 billion in debt you’re criticising is largely due to the same stimulous package you’ve been criticising. You know, the one you insisted Canada needed?
He’ll play the non-confidence card, and if Jack and Gilles have any sense of self-preservation they’ll continue to prop up the Harper government. If they don’t, Ignatieff might just find out the hard way just how much confidence the voters have in his style of government–which, really, is either really really vague or really really confusing. Neither is deserving of a passing grade. Michael Ignatieff gave Stephen Harper’s government a failing grade before he even heard the economic update. The opinionated fool gives mister Ignatieff a failing grade before he even shifts into election mode. Sorry sir, but I simply cannot support your government.
