That's how Eugene Forsey Liberal sees it. And while I think he's fucked-up sometimes, I agree with him on the importance of Parliament. So this is a bad deal and it's bad for our democracy.
The deal is symptomatic of what I see as a cycle for the current Liberals.
1) The Conservative government does something to anger a lot of people.
2) The Liberals come out swinging, hoping to gain support in the hopes of forming the government after the next election.
3) Public opinion budges, but not enough to give the Liberals a lead due to people being unsure of the Liberals' resolve/competence.
4) The Liberals panic, thinking that they have taken the wrong position (or whatever other reason), and they backtrack and generally suck for a little while. This reinforces point 3 for the public.
5) Repeat ad nauseam.
It would be funny if it wasn't real life at a time when a strong opposition would be welcomed. While the deal is technically a result of Parliamentary supremacy, the power willingly exercised by this "supremacy" is minimal at best... due to the Liberals willing to use that supremacy to let the Conservative government dictate terms.
Vertebrates claim spinelessness as the only possible explanation. Invertebrates everywhere protest at being insulted by the comparison.
Yeah, it's amazing how Canada's political system has allowed such clear-cut issues as torture and Parliament's right to investigate charges of same to be reduced to some boring, milquetoast quibbling about a committee and the jurists the committee will pass the buck to.
Maybe the Liberals are just as filthy as the harpercons and they don't want anybody seeing this.
I used to hang around on rabble.ca's "babble" until May, 2006, and, since then, I've been found at www.enmasse.ca and www.breadnroses.ca. Even more lately, I've been at EnMasse, but also numerous blogs from the progressive side.
I'm sometimes rude to people and I've been accused of "schoolyard taunts," so, here's my schoolyard.
2 comments:
The deal is symptomatic of what I see as a cycle for the current Liberals.
1) The Conservative government does something to anger a lot of people.
2) The Liberals come out swinging, hoping to gain support in the hopes of forming the government after the next election.
3) Public opinion budges, but not enough to give the Liberals a lead due to people being unsure of the Liberals' resolve/competence.
4) The Liberals panic, thinking that they have taken the wrong position (or whatever other reason), and they backtrack and generally suck for a little while. This reinforces point 3 for the public.
5) Repeat ad nauseam.
It would be funny if it wasn't real life at a time when a strong opposition would be welcomed. While the deal is technically a result of Parliamentary supremacy, the power willingly exercised by this "supremacy" is minimal at best... due to the Liberals willing to use that supremacy to let the Conservative government dictate terms.
Vertebrates claim spinelessness as the only possible explanation. Invertebrates everywhere protest at being insulted by the comparison.
Yeah, it's amazing how Canada's political system has allowed such clear-cut issues as torture and Parliament's right to investigate charges of same to be reduced to some boring, milquetoast quibbling about a committee and the jurists the committee will pass the buck to.
Maybe the Liberals are just as filthy as the harpercons and they don't want anybody seeing this.
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