Constitutional Justice

Talks of popular uprisings! Accusations of a coup d'état! Rebellion! People swearing to take up arms and fight the government and depose it by force!



Good Lord. Can these things really be being discussed in modern Canada?

Well, friends and neighbours, the sad news is that it can. In fact, in even sadder news, it IS being discussed at this very moment.

There's a lot of anger over the current consitutional crisis, and the anger is being fanned by a blustering and fierce Tory ad campaign aimed at attacking and discrediting the proposed coalition government as an "unjust" and "undemocratic" idea, and one that plays into the hands of the seperatists in Quebec. Speaking of seperatists, why has everyone forgotten that the Tory leader himself, our good buddy Stevie Harper, is an Albertan Seperatist (or at least, a sympathizer?) seems that no one from the Conservative party is mentioning that anymore. Then again, the new Conservative party is mostly made up of Alliance members, so maybe it's just taken for granted that the party is for Albertan separation but not a Quebec separation.

I find it interesting (and really quite amusing) that the Tories are so hell-bent on destroying their base of support in Quebec so quickly. I've got two words in mind to describe the strategy behind what they're doing. Give up? I'm personally calling it the "Train Wreck" approach. Seems fitting. I mean, really. Stevie goes for more then a year without so much as a peep about the Bloc or Quebec separatism. He calls Quebec "a nation within a nation" (which I found a brilliant move, myself, I'll be honest) as a way of recognizing Quebec as it's own nation-within the larger national entity that is Canada, that is. He waits, and tries wooing Quebec voters towards the Tory cause, knowing that you can't gain a majority without Quebec (well, you can... it's just harder) then, finally, this time round, he basically compromises his 10 seats in Quebec during our political crisis when he'll need all the help he can get!

I really don't understand that bit of strategy. Granted, he needs to discredit his opponents to save his own hide, but Quebec's motto isn't "Je Me Souviens" (that's "I Will Remember" for you Anglos out there) for nothing. Screwing with Quebec now is going to cost him, folks, and it's going to hurt Tory credibility in Quebec a whole helluva lot. I'm willing to bet he won't be getting any more seats in Quebec for a good long while. Is this worse then his proposal to scrap funding for the arts? You betcha!

The attack ads, however, are misinformed, Canada-the proposed Coalition does NOT include the Bloc Québecois in it. The Bloc will not make up part of the government. If they would, I'd still be wearing blue and supporting Mr. Harper. So stop panicking.

The misconception arises from a bit of a mistake during the initial reporting (and possibly even from Mr. Dion's poor use of English... but that's not a very nice thing to say, now is it? :) ) the truth is, Canada, much like what I put in my previous message, that the Bloc is not going to be part of the government. The sole reason they have anything to do with the government is because the Liberal-NDP coalition doesn't have enough seats on their own in the House of Commons to retain a majority. So, they asked the Bloc to sign an agreement, a legally binding contract, in fact, stating that they (the Bloc) would side with (meaning, vote for) the Coalition. In other words, they're agreeing to vote for legislation the Coalition would put forward. No more, no less.

Some people are arguing that a coalition is undemocratic because it unseats the legally elected government. Let me ask you fellas something in return:
Does a party who only got 38% of the vote (40%, if you don't count the Green Party) really have the right to rule the country?
Especially attempting to destroy all of it's opposition like it did? (see the blog right below this one for more info on that topic)
The fact of the matter is, what the opposition parties are doing is perfectly legal, as outlined by our national constitution (which Stevie was so eager to use when it came to toppling his own opponents, but, again, let's not mention that one, right, Steve?) and when you really think about it, the other political parties represent... well, 60% of your votes! Hey! notice how a MAJORITY of votes went for the other guys, not the Tories?

I understand how our First Past the Post system works (I don't like it, but that's off topic) but let's think about this for a second. Wouldn't it be substantially MORE democratic if the opposition got together and made a coalition government to represent Canadians? After all, they DID win 60% of the vote, compared to Harper's 40%. The parties that got all those votes just didn't want to play in the same sandbox before. Doesn't that make MORE sense, guys?

Now, back to this talk of armed insurrection (because that's always bloody interesting, isn't it?)
If you guys look at what Mr. Harper has to say about the Coalition government on his Facebook(Parizeau Endorses Coalition: http://www.facebook.com/s.php?ref=search&init=q&q=Stephen%20Harper&sid=8e9e698a071bdae5e68328b6aff61581#/note.php?note_id=42162051572) You'll find all kinds of lovely statements from his supporters, such as this:

"Ira Elliott (Calgary, AB) wroteat 4:19pm on December 3rd, 2008
This whole situation sickens me. If this coalition goes through I'm willing to topple it through armed force. I'm willing to take up arms to defend my government the way past generations did."

or how about this one:


"Mac Ka Mitsu (Kitchener, ON) wroteat 4:47pm on December 3rd, 2008
...Our forefathers stood up to injustice before, this is no different then before except now it is in our time. They are violating the basic tenants of our constitution, and if we need to use force to re install the duly and legally elected governement, then we should be willing to. I am sure that the military members would support the overthrow of this coalition..."

or my personal favourite:


"Edwin Fang (Simon Fraser) wroteat 8:33pm on December 3rd, 2008
It is about time we have a revolution and clean up the filth that has afflicted this Parliament for so long.
That is the only way we can have a Canada that is governed democratically."

Strange, for a second there, I felt like I was in the United States, didn't you?

Now, there are naturally people who opposed such talk. I'm not saying that all of Steven Harper's supporters are ultra-right wing nutballs. Hell, I don't even want to say that his supporters are ultra-right wing. Some are definately nutballs, some are probably ultra-right, but that's neither here nor there.

This shouldn't be a partisan issue. It should be a nationwide issue. Well, it is a nationwide issue, but for the wrong reasons. People are being suckered in by the Tory attack ads and some have a distorded view because of it. Lots are up in arms because they believe the BQ is actually part of the government. Canadians here "BQ" and they go bananas. I don't blame them. I would too, if they were actually governing the country. But, they aren't. The point is, Canadians should be concerned that the current minority government failed to take an active role in preparing a decent economic update, they failed our country, and they tried eliminating their opposition in a despicable, anti-Canadian and anti-democratic way. They can talk of backstabbing and backroom deals and power grabs until the cows come home, but it will NOT change the truth, and the truth is, they are the ones who were committing a power grab when they let Finance Minister Jim Flahrety say they were planning on eliminating public subsidies and not providing one bloody dollar for our Canadian industries or anything to help the average Canadian weather the economic storm that is going to hit us like a sledgehammer. Economists predict that up tp 600,000 Canadians will lose their jobs. What does Mr. Harper propose we do to save them? Axe the opposition. Other then that, he has zero game plan.

Come on, Canada. Wake up. It's about high time something get done about this. Support real democracy, support a coalition. Let's end this bloody madness and make Canada great again.