Some more budget thoughts two days later

In the comments of my post-budget post I said things were getting entertaining, in a train-wreck kind of a way. And the past day-and-a-half or so in Liberal caucus land certainly haven’t let me down.

First Wednesday morning we were greeted by this headline:

'We'll find a way to not defeat the government': Dion

While it’s positively Obama-esque, isn’t it? Can we find a way not to defeat the government? Yes we can! Inspiring stuff.

We also had some interesting revelations yesterday from Jane Taber’s beloved anonymous sources:

Stéphane Dion followed the script developed by his senior caucus leadership as he announced yesterday that there wasn't enough in the Harper budget to justify an election.

She goes on to write Dion apparently wanted to go but the majority of the senior advisors were strongly against it. Of note, she reports Michael Ignatieff wanted to go, so my apologies for assuming he was in the dove camp. I won’t belabour the point so I’ll just say again, if Dion wanted to go he should have gone, damm the torpedoes, particularly with Michael on board. Leaders lead.

Also interesting was this revelation:

But he was shot down, most significantly by national campaign co-chair David Smith, a veteran organizer and senator from Ontario. Mr. Smith said simply that the party wasn't ready to mount a national campaign, one insider said.

If this is true then we’re in even more trouble then I’d thought. How could we not be ready? We’re two years into a minority government, we should have been ready to go if need be for, well, dammed near two years! Particularly given that Dion was supposed to have already ordered the party to an election footing. Was that order ignored?

The implications of that are extremely troubling. Either way, I think that Gordon Ashworth, Mark Marissen and Nancy Girard have some serious explaining to do.

Today, the silly season continues in Liberal land as caucus debates just what form our surrender will take:

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion is privately recommending that some of his MPs vote against the budget while most stay out of the House of Commons completely to ensure the minority Conservative government survives, sources say.

In previous key confidence votes, Liberal MPs have sat in their seats and abstained.

"Every Liberal in the chamber will be voting against the budget," Mr. Dion told his caucus yesterday, according to an insider.

Liberals are still debating their tactics, however, as there are divisions over which MPs would vote and which would stay away. These same divisions led the caucus to choose mass abstentions in the past as the least objectionable option for avoiding an election.

Privately? Heh. Anyway, very important and serious debates, to be sure. Do I shoot myself in the head or swallow the cyanide capsule … is this what it has come to? We’re not going to vote the dammed thing down, arguing over whether we should vote yes or abstain or vote no but keep enough people away so it passes, it’s asinine. Do they really think anyone outside of Ottawa gives a shit?

The decision has been made not to bring down the government. I think it’s a stupid decision, but c’est la vie. But just move the heck on already, this is idiotic.

Speaking of idiotic:

Some Liberal MPs are becoming increasingly demoralized over abstaining on important votes and allowing the government to stay in power.

The latest strategy allows MPs to save some face and show opposition to the budget. But yesterday, one insider said that MPs are lobbying the Liberal Whip to be among those allowed to vote against the budget so that their constituents won't criticize them for not taking a position.

Are you serious? Here’s how you can avoid being criticized for not taking a position. Grow a pair and actually TAKE A POSITION you chicken-shits! Pleading with the leader not to go to an election and then lobbying to be able to cast a token symbolic no vote so your constituents won’t make fun of you?!

Here’s an idea. No one who argued in caucus against voting down the budget can show-up to cast one of the token votes. The doves can stay in their offices and calculate their pensions. I’m sure Jane Taber can provide us with a list.

In other budget news

A few non-the Liberals are stupid budget-related thoughts now. I think it’s worth noting that it seems pretty obvious that, despite, all his tough talk of late and making everything a confidence motion, Stephen Harper didn’t really want an election either.

At least not on this budget. If he had wanted the government to fall we would have seen a much different budget, one even Bob Rae couldn’t have agreed to support. Instead we get this bland collection of half-measures designed to be just appealing enough to give weak-kneed Liberals an out.

Any why would he want an election right now? The polls show he might have lost, and at best would have gotten another minority. Better for him to appear hawkish and watch the Liberals implode. He gains Liberal votes on the right, the NDP on the left, and everyone’s happy.

Speaking of Stephen, I found myself nodding and agreeing with these comments from Garth Turner:

Liberal MP Garth Turner said yesterday that he would have liked the Prime Minister to be nicer to the Liberals in light of recent events.

"I thought that the Prime Minister's taunts [yesterday] were uncalled for and I think he's, you know, being provocative," Mr. Turner said. "It's unfortunate after he's had such a level of co-operation from the Liberals.

"So I think it was, you know, unfortunate, sad, a measure of the guy and he's certainly putting his stick in our eye."

I don’t think Garth really expects Harper to be nice to us. I think he better than most knows what a dick Harper is. Turner has a good point though, in that Harper’s poking with a stick here is curious.

There’s an old maxim of politics that, when your opponent is self-destructing, just stay out of the way. The Liberals are doing a good enough job of imploding all on their own, Harper’s help isn’t needed. By taking a few cheap shots he’s not going to gain any more than he already was; indeed, he only reinforces his own negatives.

I guess he just can’t help himself.

Anyway, looks like this Cadman thing may push the budget into the background for a little while anyway. And then there’s the Mulroney inquiry, the Dimitri Soudas investigation, the John Baird revelations, an appointment binge … at least its obvious why the Cons don’t want an election. The Libs, that’s another story.

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If not now, when? For the love of god, when?

So, as everyone by now knows, Stephane Dion has said, while this budget is "a mile wide and an inch deep" he's going to have the Liberals support it anyway, and let this government see another day. Or, at this rate, however many more days there are to the fixed election date in 2009.

Is it possible to be flabbergasted, and not be surprised, at the same time? Because that's my reaction. As much as I ridicule the NDP for deciding to vote against it before they've seen it, it seems clear the Liberals decided to vote for the budget before they'd even seen it. They were clearly signaling their intentions last week with the ridiculous "if it's not TOO bad for the economy" comment from Dion. So I'm not surprised, and yet, still, it boggles the imagination that, again, we're backing down and propping-up this government that doesn't deserve to be in power.

I could attempt to tow the party line and say there's nothing in this budget to get excited about, no big deal, let's just move on. And it is a rather bland, inoffensive document. It is, indeed, a mile wide and an inch deep. It has some positives and says some nice things, though it doesn't go near far enough in the right areas and goes too far in others.

I don't believe in that excuse, however. Because at this point in the life of this government we don't need a reason to bring it down. It needs to give us a reason to support it. And it has failed at doing that.

Canadians don't want an election, say the apologists. I'm not aware that they ever have. It's like going to the dentist: you'd rather not, but you don't want cavities so you go. There's nothing in here we could go to the people on, they continue. It's been my experience that two days into an election no one remembers how it was precipitated.

You want issues to go on though? How about squandering record surpluses with reckless spending over two years that has left us dangerously close to deficit? How about ignoring economic challenges in Ontario and Quebec? How about a billion-dollar softwood sellout? How about firing any bureaucrat or nuclear regulator that disagrees with the government? How about abandoning any action on decreasing wait times? How about taking no substantive action on the environment? How about abandoning the Kelowna Accord? How about doing nothing meaningful on childcare? And a million other reasons why this government, whose agenda is supported by only a minority of Canadians, should not be allowed to continue. How about hijacking the wheat board? It goes on and on and on...

There are plenty of good reasons to force an election. It seems however the Liberal Party is more interested in looking for reasons to not force one. My advice to Stephane Dion yesterday stands. This was an opportunity for leadership, and he surrendered. Why? I don't know, but it's a huge mistake, and I don't see how it recovers from it.

As for the majority of caucus that apparently was pushing him to lower our swords, what's their motivation? I don't know. Maybe Bob Rae's supporters thought Bob would be better positioned for his next leadership run if Bob was in caucus, and Michael Ignatieff's people wanted more time to get ready too, and pay off debts. Who knows. But its becoming abundantly clear that, whatever the agendas are, it has nothing do with what's best for the Liberal Party or, more importantly, what' s best for the people of Canada.

This is a caucus divided, and the only way Dion was ever going to force it to come together was to force them into an election. A common enemy, fighting for survival and what not. Now that's not going to happen, and the bullshit is only going to continue.

From this day forward, I'm going to find it very difficult to not laugh whenever the Liberals say something bad about the Harper government. I broke my no Mike Duffy rule tonight for 10 minutes, because it was budget day after all, and caught the end of his coverage. Liberal Steve MacKinnon was on a strategists panel, saying what he didn't like about the budget. And I said to myself who cares Steve, we're not opposing it.

How in the hell can we pretend any longer to have any credibility as the official opposition? Any time an MP or party official takes issue with something negative the government does, I'm just going to think yeah, but you still propped them up, so who gives a crap what you think. If you really cared, we wouldn't be here.

Two years ago I had such high hopes for my party. And again, I've come full circle. I blame Stephane Dion for not showing leadership and bringing the party together. I blame the party establishment and the caucus, for never moving past the leadership race and refusing to work with the leader we elected. There's lots of blame to go around.

And to those that say let's replace the leader, I say with who exactly? Soon the siren call will begin for another white knight, another savior to return the Liberal Party to glory. If only Iggy, if only Bob, if only Frank MacKenna or Justin Trudeau or Mr. Dressup, then everything would be peacky-keen.

It's bullshit. Stephane Dion failed to fix the problem, that's correct. But he didn't create the problem. We did, and papering it with a new leader won't change a thing.

The problem is, we rushed into a leadership race after the election defeat without ever really acknowledging the deep rot that has set into the Liberal Party, let alone doing anything to fix it. We created this rot, this sickness through years of Chretien/Martin civil war, preceded by years of Turner/Chretien civil war, going back who knows how many generations. A rot worsened by years of majority government with noses bellied-up to the trough, by self-important organizers that put winning and position before policy and what's right, by a deep sense of entitlement, by a bloated party machine dependent on big corporate donations.

Unless we ever get serious about reforming this party and returning (or, since they've never really had it, giving) power to the grassroots then it's hard to really care where we go from here. Dion will stay an indecisive yet willing captive to a divided caucus running its own multiple agendas until enough of those factions decide their interests warrant an election. We'll then finally have an election that, at this rate, we'll lose. We'll pin it all on the leader, he'll probably fall on his sword, and we'll have a leadership race. We'll look for the most messiah-like, crown them, the Conservatives will begin their predictable attack ads and the cycle will begin all over again. Remember, you read it here first.

As for me, I don't know. I'll keep commenting from afar, very afar, but I've lost my energy, and more importantly I've lost my passion. Right now baseball season can't start soon enough.

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Dear Liberals: It's time to lead

A Google search tells me it was Thomas Paine that gave us the expression "lead, follow, or get out of the way." I didn’t know that. I first heard it as a young air cadet; it made sense to me then and it still makes sense now. In the hours before the budget, it's a decision the Liberal Party needs to make as well.

We’ve been doing some following, and we certainly have been developing an affinity for getting the heck out of the way. But now, it’s time to lead.

I don’t know what will be in the budget; we’ll have to wait a few hours for that. I’ll still be working, so I’ll have to wait a little longer still. Barring major surprise, however, the Liberal Party will need to vote it down. No holding our nose if it’s “not too bad for the economy” which, frankly, is a ridiculous notion. If it doesn’t take the necessary steps to deal with the economic situation, and address the priorities of Canadians, we need to vote no.

And we need to come out with our position firmly, clearly and loudly. We can’t have a repeat what we saw after the throne speech, where Stephane Dion took the night off to think about it and sent out Michael Ignatieff to the cameras. Dion needs to be front and centre, and he needs to stand firm. Clearly state our objections, preview our proposed amendments, and make clear if the amendments aren’t accepted we won’t be voting yes. If that means an election, so be it.

For Dion particularly, it’s time to lead. What happened to the forceful debater I supported in Montreal? What happened to the Stephane Dion that stared down the separatists, who made his position clear and defended what he knew to be right against all comers? I liked that guy, anyone seen him?

Now, he has been in a tough spot, trying to play conciliator amongst a fractious caucus. Remember, he won the leadership with little support from caucus and the party leadership. By and large it was grassroots Liberals that put him into the OLO. It seems clear from the rampant media leaks that he still hasn’t won over much of the caucus, and the aristocracy. He needs to shoulder his share of the blame for that; so do they.

It doesn’t matter at this point though. It’s time for Stephane Dion to remember who gave him this job in the first place, and to remember why we gave it to him. Ignore the caucus factions looking to position leadership successors, the nervous nellies afraid of their own shadows and losing their cushy jobs, and yes ignore the hawks hungry for election blood.

Instead, ask yourself if this budget is really the one Canadians need, and if this Conservative deserves to continue to govern. If the answer is no, then it’s to the hustings we go. It’s the only consideration that should matter.

Enough is enough. It’s time to lead. Otherwise, just what the hell are we doing anyways?

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Say it ain't so, Jack!

This sounds to me like Jack Layton's NDP might actually decide to support the Conservative budget. What, the righteous and mighty NDP prop-up the forces of evil like they are some kind of Liberals or something? Sounds crazy, I know, and yet:

NDP Leader Jack Layton is making his support for this week's federal budget conditional on it meeting the concerns of Canadian families and dropping large corporate tax cuts.

"We should be making investments in health, education and infrastructure, where the working families of this country are most concerned," Layton said this weekend during a visit to Quebec.

Layton also called for more money for infrastructure and said the Conservative government should stop subsidizing large oil companies and banks.

So does that mean, if Harper meets their demands, Layton and the NDP will vote for the budget? I thought Layton had already made clear he was voting against the budget though, sight-unseen.

The NDP has already stated it will vote against the budget.

Yep, that's what I thought. And also Sunday, Jack told CTV:

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion has abandoned "any pretence of progressive opposition" by musing he might support the looming Conservative budget, says NDP Leader Jack Layton.

Fighting words. But wait, what was that Jack also said Sunday in Quebec?

NDP Leader Jack Layton is making his support for this week's federal budget conditional on it meeting the concerns of Canadian families and dropping large corporate tax cuts.

Yeah, that's what I thought he'd said. That kind of sounds to me like Jack musing he might support the looming Conservative budget. Has Layton abandoned any pretense of progressive opposition too?

Or does he actually have no intention of supporting the budget, and instead will vote against it even if it has everything he demands, out of "principle" or something? Lend me your votes indeed.

All that said, it's still slightly more coherent than what's coming out of the Liberal caucus these days. Tomorrow will be interesting.

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