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[explodet]

The Liberal government survived a crucial budget vote Thursday night by a sliver, ending the possibility of a snap election and giving the governing minority a bit of breathing room to finish this session of Parliament before the summer break.

By the closest of margins, the Grits, along with the support of the NDP, and Independent MPs Chuck Cadman and Carolyn Parrish, pushed their budget with NDP amendments through, thus surviving a non-confidence motion on Bill C-48 which contained $4.6-billion in concessions for the Democrats. The final result was 152 to 152, with the Speaker breaking the tie for the government.

Now can you jerks PLEASE get on with running the country?

 

[Kifimbo]

Politics is a joke in this country. End of story.

 

[maharg]

that's pretty nuts.

 

[TheQueen'sOwn]

I was hoping Harper would force it to an election... lose the election.. and get raped by the members in his party.
Ah well.

 

[Fatghost]

Saw it coming with Barbie's defection earlier this week.

 

[Socreges]

Haha, Barbie

I don't know what to think.... I'm fucking sick of the Liberals.... but I don't want the Conservatives in charge..... maybe I should consider the NDP? *shudders a little*

 

[Diablos]

Politics is a joke in this country. End of story.

Yeah, and the US has been setting a much better example. :rolleyes

 

[BigJonsson]

The Conservative support is fading in most polls, I love it

 

[Fifty]

Yeah, and the US has been setting a much better example. :rolleyes

Hey he never said it wasn't a bigger joke in the US!

:lol

 

[BigJonsson]

Hey he never said it wasn't a bigger joke in the US!

:lol

At least in Canada we can have a cabinet minister talking to reporters about having pizza and beer with another MP

 

[Mike Works]

Haha, Barbie

I don't know what to think.... I'm fucking sick of the Liberals.... but I don't want the Conservatives in charge..... maybe I should consider the NDP? *shudders a little*

I know how you feel. I mean, with a level head, one should consider at least considering the NDP, but when you've lived in BC for the past decade, you just get a part Pavlovian, part Clockwork Orange instinctual response, causing you to relapse into a depressing pile of fear.

 

[fallout]

I know how you feel. I mean, with a level head, one should consider at least considering the NDP, but when you've lived in BC for the past decade, you just get a part Pavlovian, part Clockwork Orange instinctual response, causing you to relapse into a depressing pile of fear.

Sadly, I still regard it as my best option. :\

 

[Azih]

provincial NDPs suck ass. the same ass that the Federal NDP kicks!

Plus the idea isn't to give NDP a majority government, but to give them the balance of power in a minority situation, just see what they can pull off when they're in that position.


And anyway HOW CAN YOU RESIST THE MOUSTACHE?

 

[Malakhov]

This vote yesterday just showed how this country is divided and that politics here are at an all time low.

Martin is a rat, I liked how he went and convinced people of voting for him because if they didn't vote for him they'd be giving Quebec away. What the fuck Martin, this was about your budget and not a referendum you moron.

 

[maharg]

It's never about just one thing, whichever one thing you or he thinks it is.

 

[Memles]

Martin is a rat, I liked how he went and convinced people of voting for him because if they didn't vote for him they'd be giving Quebec away. What the fuck Martin, this was about your budget and not a referendum you moron.

Uh, what? Seriously? Sigh. While I agree that Martin went all extremist on this thing, to single him out is ludicrous. Why? Because Harper was the one who made this about nothing even CLOSE to the budget. This was about a corrupt government to Harper, not about the budget itself. Harper would have shot down the initial budget too, don't let his first vote stance fool you. While he obviously disliked the new NDP spending added to the budget, that didn't cause him to do anything. He was going to use this situation to attempt to force an election no matter what the budget contained. All Martin did with his new spending was give Harper a more legitimate reason to vote against it.

Since Harper had his "Corrupt Government" card made into a giant sandwich board he wore around the country, Martin kind of had to bring out something of his own. For appeasement, he spent a lot of money and signed a lot of deals. For fear mongering, Quebec happened. It was a strong two-pronged attack that stood as a logical, if exaggerated, line of defense.

This vote came down to Belinda Stronach crossing the floor, so congratulations to the Liberal Party of Canada for saving their own asses. I'm very much glad to see Harper lose this one, if only because I hope it makes him seriously re-evaluate how he's leading the party. While I think he's a douchebag, the point stands that he did a really, really poor job of this. He had everything in the palm of his hands, and all he had to do was hold onto his MPs and really convince Canadians they needed an election. All he did was talk about corruption in the Liberal Government, and then keep promising to match Martin's spending in key areas when he's elected. So, in other words, "We'll do most of what the Liberals are doing now, so let's just stop accomplishing stuff in Parliament and wait two months until we get into power". He needed to differentiate himself more than claiming he wasn't corrupt, and he didn't do that. While Martin was running an election style campaign to stay alive, Harper shouldn't have just followed his lead into promises. He should have stressed the fundamental differences between the two parties.

Of course, let's remember, it is those ideological differences that are going to keep Canadians from giving the Conservatives a majority until they get a leader who is willing to move more to the center. Once they get a leader that can truly unite Conservatives across Canada, they can actually speak freely about their ideological differences. However, Harper is too right-wing to argue on anything other than corruption right now. Harper scares people when he talks about his own personal social politics, so all he can run a campaign on is the sponsorship scandal...and the only way he can really do that and only that is if he runs it while the Gomery Inquiry is running, or the report is insanely damaging to Paul Martin. All Harper can do now is hope for the latter, and curse himself that the prior just won't happen anymore.

 

[Malakhov]

Memles: The vote came down to Chuck Cadman and Martin went to see him privately a few days ago and Cadman said yesterday that what convinced him to vote for the liberals was that Martin told him that if he didn't vote for the liberals, he was giving Quebec away. It's freaking ridiculous.

 

[Memles]

Memles: The vote came down to Chuck Cadman and Martin went to see him privately a few days ago and Cadman said yesterday that what convinced him to vote for the liberals was that Martin told him that if he didn't vote for the liberals, he was giving Quebec away. It's freaking ridiculous.

To be fair, an election right now WOULD be increasing the power of the Bloc. I can't blame Martin for using exaggerated rhetoric on that issue, sorry. He had the card, he played the card.

 

[Malakhov]

To be fair, an election right now WOULD be increasing the power of the Bloc. I can't blame Martin for using exaggerated rhetoric on that issue, sorry. He had the card, he played the card.

It wouldnt of given the Bloc more power, the Bloc will always be a minority. I'm kind of glad there won't be elections right now though, it wouldn't of done anything 'cept put another minority governement in place. Let's finish Gomery and then let's do elections.

Also on the other hand, I wouldn't say Martin played his card in this, I'd say Layton did, he was the big winner in all of this. The Bloc could of done the same thing and negotiate something with the Liberals for their good but they don't want to have anything to do with the present Liberals because of the corruption.

 

[Azih]

Memles: The vote came down to Chuck Cadman and Martin went to see him privately a few days ago and Cadman said yesterday that what convinced him to vote for the liberals was that Martin told him that if he didn't vote for the liberals, he was giving Quebec away. It's freaking ridiculous.

Now THAT is wrong. Cadman voted the way he did because 2/3rds of his constituents didn't want an election not whatever Martin told him.

Further in the response to the budget being passed, Harper was the only one who mentioned Quebec, Martin didn't.

 

[Malakhov]

It came right from Cadman's mouth yesterday.

 

[Azih]

It came right from Cadman's mouth yesterday.

Not according to http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...54&t=TS_Home&DPL=IvsNDS/7ChAX&tacodalogin=yes

relevant bit

Can the Parliament continue to function? I hope it can, because that was the one thing that came to mind. I hope I can force everybody to get back to work now, doing what people expect them to do," he said. "In the end, I had to make a decision and I had to go with my constituents."

 

[fallout]

It came right from Cadman's mouth yesterday.

Got a source on that? I read the same thing that Azih did.

 

[theREBELins]

Cadman voted the way he did because 2/3rds of his constituents didn't want an election not whatever Martin told him.

Heard that from his mouth