While the text of the Liberal motion calling on the HoC to condemn the NDP, the BQ, beer brewers, popcorn makers, and your mom for making us lose the last election is certainly generating debate, through senior Liberal Ottawa sources I have obtained the text of the motion they intend to introduce on their next opposition day after this one.
It follows:
WHEREAS the Liberal Party of Canada is too afraid of its own shadow to actually risk challenging the government on a confidence vote
And WHEREAS this lack of a backbone has allowed the Conservative Party to govern as if they had a majority, to the detriment of the nation and against the will of the majority of Canadians
Therefore, BE IT RESOLVED that this House condemn us for our actions, and agree that we totally suck for allowing a government that we agree is hostile to the rights and needs of vulnerable Canadians to continue to govern.
In all seriousness, what genius thought an opposition day motion condemning other opposition parties was a whiz-bang fantastic idea? I mean, seriously. I totally think the NDP and BQ suck, although for reasons that have nothing to do with the reasons in the Liberal motion. But a motion to call them names? It's stupid. And as for the last election, just get over it already.
UPDATE: Paul Wells has been by, and he explains the Liberal master strategy with their motion back at his place:
The Liberals need to introduce motions that sound like no-confidence declarations but won't actually command a majority of votes in the Commons. Hence the motion the other day about the government's "NDP-like" lack of fiscal discipline. And now a motion that says the government's mere existence is the fault of the NDP and the Bloc. The Liberals need motions the other parties can't support, because when Stéphane Dion tells his campaign officials to prepare for a campaign, they refuse to comply.That makes sense. Not in a 'man that's a genius strategy kind of way', mind you, but in a this is clearly what the Liberal “braintrust” is thinking kind of a way. As Paul says, it is pretty clear really. I guess I was just hoping there was some bigger master strategy that actually, you know, made sense and might work that I was missing here. Sadly, it appears there's not.
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17 comments:
Whooee! Good one.
Sounds like it won't be too long before you come over to Lizzie May's merrie band of treehuggin' Greenies, Jeff. With Dion either agreeing or abstaining, your party ain't doin' much to keep supporters like yerself.
JB
Jeff, do you understand this motion? Is there some kind of twisted uber logic to it that I'm missing? Do I need to beat my head against the wall for an hour?
Jason claims this is brillant
If someone's head does not roll for this, Dion's should.
It is incredibly embarrassing.
There goes Vancouver Quadra. I wonder if the NDP could take Willowdale as well?
This is so incredibly embarrassing.
"This is so incredibly embarrassing."
I'm sincere about reaching out to red-faced Grits. Consider the Green Party. www.greenparty.ca.
(No. Lizzie may don't pay me nothin' fer pluggin' the GPC. I wish she would.)
JB
Why would any disgruntled Liberal reach out to the GPC, especially when May has been so slavishly rubber stamping whatever lunacy Dion says and does?
For all her efforts to support the discredited Liberals Lizzie has completely undermined her own credibility.
MissJoan,
"There goes Vancouver Quadra. I wonder if the NDP could take Willowdale as well?"
That would be game, set, and match for Stephane. Quadra and Willowdale going to the Cons with Cadman front page news. Time to shut up shop.
"Why would any disgruntled Liberal reach out to the GPC, especially when May has been so slavishly rubber stamping whatever lunacy Dion says and does?"
Dion has been told by the party brass to not reach out to Lizzie May anymore. He is also encouraged not to say anything on electoral reform, something that would help Ms. May greatly.
Jimmie, you are misinformed. Lizzie has not endorsed Liberal policy. She has merely stated that she considers Harper a disaster for the environment and Dion a much better choice for PM. She is not such a dreamer as to think that she herself will be PM anytime soon. Either Harper or Dion will head up a (likely) minority government after the next election. She's on record as saying the best outcome would be a Liberal minority with a smattering of Greens "to keep them honest." Realistic stuff.
Greens are running against Grits in 307 ridings. The two parties are not the same. The two leaders have a great deal of respect for one another.
Greens have a certain amount of respect for Dion's environmental stance but, like many Grits, many Greens are quickly losing respect for Dion.
JB
We'll see Jim.
Zorph, I haven't seen anything on Jason's site, where has he made that case? Perhaps he can sway me to see the strategic genius, as it alludes me at the moment.
Joan, the NDP are dropping in Ontario, I don't see them taking Willowdale, and trying to minimize the Cadman thing won't help. As for Quadra, I haven't heard of trouble but if it goes anything other than Liberal, it will be CPC, not NDP.
Dion has been told by the party brass to not reach out to Lizzie May anymore. He is also encouraged not to say anything on electoral reform, something that would help Ms. May greatly.
Is there anything else Bob doesn't want us talking about? Maybe he can provide a list of talking points.
My motion is as follows, as amended:
WHEREAS the Liberal Party of Canada believes that the March 17 by-election's will demonstrate that we are challenging Stephen Harper's conservative agenda.
And WHEREAS these by-elections are important in promoting a Liberal alternative to government
Therefore, BE IT RESOLVED that this House should suspend sitting until March 18, 2008 so Her Majesty's Official Opposition can abscond itself from further Ways and Means decisions in the House of Commons.
_______________________________
I think this reflects the true decision of the party brass. Thanks.
Greens are running against Grits in 307 ridings.
306. We won't be facing each other in Central Nova and St. Laurent Cartierville, or whatever Dion's riding is.
"Is there anything else Bob doesn't want us talking about? Maybe he can provide a list of talking points."
It is not Bob per se. The person making the decision is a Senator who has a residence in the Forest Hill area. Well known to all, maybe we should go out there and picket his house as disgruntled Grits.
JB
You're like on of those army recruiters that trolls the malls, looking for disaffected youth ;)
The only thing I can think of on this one is that they're trying to get ahead of the NDP confidence motions that say essentially the same thing about the status of women etc.
This way when the confidence vote comes, they can walk out saying that the house already voted this down, and so choosing to have an election over it now would be dumb.
Of course, that kind of policy shenanigans is juvenile pedantry that doesn't matter to anybody who isn't a lawyer.
On the bright side, I do have to thank the Liberal Party for making my voting choice easier in any upcoming federal election. I've been willing to accept the sit-on-hands til-we-won't-lose-worse technique, but this is school-boy crap, and they deserve to be sent back to school for pulling it.
Jeff,
your posts have been great on this subject. I wondered if you had views about tomorrow's confidence motion which is: Mr. Layton (Toronto—Danforth) — That the House regrets this government’s failure to live up to Canada’s international climate change agreements, and its refusal to bring forward for debate and vote, the Clean Air and Climate Change Act, the climate change plan called for by a majority vote of the House, and that therefore the House no longer has confidence in this government.
got it off the order paper on the parliament website
This one will be tough I would imagine given the stand dion has taken on the environment, though I wonder why the dippers aren't out spinning it. As there are no votes on friday, next monday or tuesday may be dramatic.
Yes -- this is very stupid. It is such a blatant embarassment that it is puzzling to try to figure out what the strategy is here. I am wondering if Dion is being toyed with here. Has he been fed this strategy in an attempt to undermine his credibility? If Dion loses 2 of 4 bi-elections is that a valid enough reason to pass the torch?
Shane, they're just trying to embarrass the Liberals.They wrote the motion to make it as hard as possible for us to disagree with. We agree the Cons are bad on the environment, we've been saying that since Dion got in. There's no poison pills, for example, complaining of Liberal inaction on the file in government, so no excuse for us not to vote for it.
Except it would topple the government, and we don't seem keen on doing that just yet, until some mythical future time. So they know we'll likely vote no or abstain, either of which will be embarrassing outcomes they'll mock us mercilessly for and hope to gain advantage from. And whenever we attack the Cons on the environment in the future, both the NDP and the Cons will throw our actions on this motion back at us to blunt our credibility, such as it is.
You're like on of those army recruiters that trolls the malls, looking for disaffected youth ;)
Greenies, Moonies, Scientologists and the US Army -- all competing for the disaffected. It inspires a slogan:
Be all that you can be - hug a tree.
JB
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