The Coalition & Demorcracy

To put it all in perspective I think the constitutional expert participating in TVO’s “The Agenda” put it correctly. We elect a parliament, not a prime minister, we are not the U.S. and do not have a presidential system. The party that gets the most votes gets to run the country so long as they have the confidence of the parliamentary representatives that we have elected.
Whilst the non confidence vote may be centered upon the recent fiscal update I believe that the loss of confidence in this government has its basis in the many antidemocratic actions by Mr Harper and his party over the last 2 years. They are far too numerous to document here but a small sampling includes the parliamentary dirty tricks handbook, the partisan 10%ers sent out in the millions prior to the election, the muzzling of diplomats, bureaucrats, government scientists, firing of “independent” commission chairpersons without due process, the list goes on.
Now they have the gall to call the actions of the rest of the parliamentarians in seeking to form a coalition “anti democratic” and instruct their followers to bombard the media with totally inaccurate and misleading “talking points”. Whether or not their financial plans are good or bad it is their attacks upon democracy that must be stopped and as they seem incapable of any kind of cooperation within the House I believe the opposition is fully justified in this move and that the Governor General when / if asked must give them the opportunity to try and govern. A new election so soon after the last one, with a probable similar result of a non majority government of one type or another, is not an option.

A copy of the Coalition agreement is posted at http://www.garth.ca/weblog/2008/12/02/the-accord/#comment-186328