After a remarkably short and relatively conciliatory Throne Speech, Deficit Steve laid down a prelude to tomorrow's budget announcement. The same ship of fools who in October were forecasting 5 years of surpluses (because who could possibly have predicted a looming recession?) are now confirming a big deficit. Although the Conservatives have been doing their very best to leak their entire budget before budget day, the devil will be in the details, and the details will be out tomorrow.
Iggy and Duceppe have indicated that they will wait until they see the fine print of the budget before deciding on whether or not it merits their support. If the tone of today's Throne Speech is any indicator, the budget will likely contain enough elements to placate Ignatieff. Personally, I think this is a smart move. The Conservatives will never offer a more conciliatory budget, the Liberals need time to heal and regrow the party, and if a deficit is inevitable, let Harper wear it himself.
And in a curious nod to his own political irrelevance, Jack Layton has already announced that he and the NDP will be voting against a budget they have not yet seen. Bravo.
After the downright "regal" inauguration of Obama, it was a little disheartening to see our parliament resume with Deficit Steve and his cadre of grossly incompetent ministers. But hey, at least they're working again.
Moving Day
12 years ago
6 comments:
A coalition with Layton would be a disaster.
Why? I heard Nathan Cullen say today that Iggy either supports their vision of change and stability or decides to prop up Harper - strike 1 against the NDP.
Layton told Peter Van Husen on CPAC that he trusts Iggy because Iggy says the same thing in private as he does in public. - strike 2 - this could come back to haunt Layton.
Strike 3 and your out as they say.
I don't trust Layton (he'll sleep with anyone in his political climb to be relevant) anymore than I trust Harper.
Bellevance and Lapierre (Quebec journalists) said on CTV that the excitement and support for the coalition in Quebec in waning - could be the strike 3 maybe?
RS - It's hard to take a lot of what Jack says seriously. He has the luxury of being able to oppose budgets in perpetuity, since he knows it makes no difference. Iggy's job is considerably harder. I think it would be wise for him to keep the coalition card in his back pocket, but realistically I think he'll end up supporting the budget. We'll see...
The new budget sounds a lot more reasonable than the old one, at least what we know of it right now. Still, if the government survives the spring, Harper gains the upper hand...a de facto majority. Having the coalition in your back pocket is a time-limited arrangement. The older the Parliament gets, the more likely the GG will call fresh a election if the government is defeated.
MD - Re: the coalition, I was just referring to tomorrow's budget announcement. Of course if it passes, as I assume it will, the gov't will be allowed to govern, and the Liberals should then focus on putting up a decent showing in the next election, rather than pushing the coalition idea.
Didn't you think Dion's political assassination came at a very convenient time for our Steve ?
He set up a brief pause in which the master's whistle could be clearly heard.
It was fun in a way. The PCs were once the ones notorious for that regicide garbage. Joe Clark was one week in office when an idiot foreign minister publicly speculated about inter-religious access to Jerusalem. Dief the Chief was said to have stories as well.
King Brian. Well, we know how he took over, hm?
So we end up with sanitized idiots programmed to keep their stupid from public view. God bless Steve : somebody ought to ( not me ).
Doesn't the implementation of the Peter Principle resonate with Steve's designated recognition as a factotum Mini Me ?
On 22 February 2012, a train crashed at Once Station (Spanish: Estación Once de Septiembre; IPA: [ˈonse]) in the Balvanera barrio of Buenos Aires, Argentina. There were about 1,000 passengers on board the crowded eight-carriage train, which hit the buffers when it failed to stop, crushing the motor carriage and the following two carriages, after approaching the station too quickly, reportedly due to brake failure. 51 people were killed and more than 700 were injured; the dead and seriously injured were in the first two carriages,[3] packed with people who had moved to the front of the train to be near the station exit on arrival.
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