Last night GC and I went to three events, two of which aren’t actually happening until Friday. I don’t know how I managed to mess up the Google calendar quite so messily. At any rate, we ended up playing checkers at Raw Sugar instead. It was our first visit to this whimsical little coffee shop.
Afterwards we went to our third event on the Google calendar – Ian Tamblyn launching his new CD at Irene’s – and that was actually happening, so we sat back and enjoyed some songs, guitar and dulcimer music.
Today I’m skipping my Thursday Lunch Hour Knitting Club in order to overthrow the Canadian government. I like the way that sounds. But really, I’m just going to a rally on Parliament Hill to support the Coalition.
There’s a lot of confusion about the legitimacy of the Coalition and whether what’s happening is fair and legal. Stephen Harper has been instrumental in promoting and exploiting that confusion. The fact is, the Coalition is all three: legitimate, fair and legal. The Yarn Harlot put aside her knitting yesterday to write a very informative and user-friendly primer about what’s going on. (As of 6:37 this morning, there are 518 comments on that post.)
If you’re in Ottawa and you support the coalition, come on up to the Hill at noon today and help make Canadian history. If you can’t make it to the Hill, you can still show your support by signing the petition.
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Carry my support with you! I will sign the petition, but I wish I could be there. It saddens me to see so many people spewing the precise same vitriol that is coming from our honourable government without ever considering the actual facts. I want to tear my hair out every time someone calls this ‘undemocratic’or a ‘coup’.
My objection to the coalition is that it is a blatantly naked, drooling power grab. They are far too gleeful and look like children on a playground, trying to climb on top of the dirt pile. It’s embarrassing. If the opposition leaders were more sober and actually had a plan that didn’t involved spending that we cannot and should not afford, then I might be willing to listen to them. I’m sorry but all I see is a plan to throw money at unions, at failing sectors (like the auto industry), at Quebec (because of the BlocQ), and no understanding of how the economy really works.
I will preface my remarks by stating that I am not a Liberal. For the first time in over 40 years of voting, I voted for the Liberal party.
Stephane Dion does not seem to me to be salivating. He is not much of a politician and that is likely why the Liberals lost ground in the last election. I think he is an honourable and intelligent man who cares about this country, and that is important right now.
A minority government, especially in problematic times, must operate cooperatively. The government leader must be willing and able to work with others. Stephen Harper has shown over and over again that he is incapable of doing that.
If we had a system of proportional representation we would always have people of different political stripes working together to ensure that the country received the best that our finest minds could give them. The coalition gives us a chance to show that that kind of cooperation can work.
Heather and Oma, I agree.
Julia, I don’t see it that way at all. If you want to use a schoolyard example, I see it more as a case of the rest of the kids standing together against the schoolyard bully. Harper’s autocratic style doesn’t work in a minority situation.
Zoom, I agree that Harper is abrasive. I wish we had better leaders for ALL the parties! Why can’t we get good people out there?
If he were merely abrasive, I don’t think we’d be looking at the opposition parties forming a coalition government.
As for why we can’t get good people, I think there’s something fundamentally wrong with the political system. In order to rise to the top, one has to be a driven, ambitious, image-conscious shmoozer. The best people are not necessarily the kind of people who will rise through the ranks of political parties. I’d like to see fewer lawyers and shmoozers and more visionaries and philosophers, but that’ll never happen unless there’s a revolution or at least a fundamental overhaul of the entire system.
Every time I have gone to Raw Sugar, it has already been closed. I suppose I need to drag myself there on some weekend day, while the sun is still visible.