Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Coalition? No, it's an, umm, confederacy!

My own personal fall election likelihood prediction (today I have it at 70%, down 15 points from yesterday) has bounced up and down like a rubber ball from day to day.

So who's to say if the apparent thawing of relations between the NDP and the Conservatives over EI (more like the NDP trying desperately to avoid an election and the Conservatives looking on rather disdainfully) will come to anything. Personally, I think Harper wants an election but doesn't want to be seen wanting an election, so no matter how badly Layton wants to deal, Harper will try to find a way to shake him off.

One thing I do know is that both parties will be incredibly adverse to the use of the c word, coalition, to describe their potential relationship. Accordingly, as a public service, allow me to suggest some alternatives:

affiliation, alliance, amalgam, amalgamation, anschluss, bloc, coadunation, combination, combine, compact, confederacy, confederation, conjunction, consolidation, conspiracy, faction, federation, fusion, integration, league, melding, mergence, merger, merging, party, ring, unification, union
Off hand I'd avoid anschluss for historical reasons (see Austria, Nazi occupation of), bloc (see Quebecois) and union (see labour). I rather like confederacy though, although as a Liberal, conspiracy has a certain ring to it.

But no. The Conservative-NDP Confederacy. Has a certain je ne sais quoi, non?

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9 comments:

Greg said...

Personally, I think Harper wants an election but doesn't want to be seen wanting an election, so no matter how badly Layton wants to deal, Harper will try to find a way to shake him off.

Funny isn't it? Harper wants an election and Layton doesn't. But, Harper doesn't want to look like he wants an election so he has to give Layton enough so the NDP will support him. No wonder Harper is so cranky.

A Eliz. said...

Perhaps he will have the Bloc on his side with a good excuse to have an election..I do not want to have anything to do with the Separatists,..anything for an election..it is written all over his face.
How stupid does he think we are..do not answer that!

Gary Hilson said...

Symbiosis? Synergy?

CanadianSense said...

Can you explain the logic in the NDP participation of eliminating 50% of their seats and having a leadership convention in 2010 as a result?

I don't understand why the NDP would follow the Liberals to the polls at the discretion of the Liberals.

Northern PoV said...

No, Canadiansense
nobody is disputing the logic of the NDP moves ...
just enjoying the schadenfreude of watching them desperately trying to reconcile this with their own rhetoric.

Makes Iggy and his advisers look pretty smart.

Northern PoV said...

Hey Jeff
did you notice that my quibble from yesterday was exactly one of the points Ivvison used in your NP to trash Iggy?

Barcs said...

the tories and the NDP... opposites... always fighting (nearly always).

In my opinion you can refer to this in only one way.... marriage.

Jeff said...

CS,

I don't think it's particularly logical. Nor did I think it's particularly logical the 79 other times the NDP voted to defeat the government. They must have thought it was logical those 79 times though, no?

Or maybe they were being disingenuous those 79 times with their "Harper can't be trusted we want him gone dam you Liberals for voting with them" rhetoric and should just admit it.

Jeff said...

npov,

I did. I'm not too concerned though.