The Coalition is legit

December 2nd, 2008

There are a lot of people in my area that are insisting that the coalition of Lib/NDP/Bloc is undermining democracy, and spreading disinformation to that effect.  But at the end of the day let’s make sure we get our facts straight.

  • These three parties (the opposition) have effectively lost confidence in the government.  That’s why we are headed for a non-confidence vote.
  • They are completely within their constitutional (a fairly democratic document) to topple the minority Conservative government.
  • The governor general all of a sudden has a landmark decision to make.

Never mind the fact that if you add up the popular vote of the Lib/NDP/Bloc it comes out to ~60% of the votes cast in 2008.

This is not undemocratic under our Canadian system – it just doesn’t happen very often.

As to the governor general’s big decision, she can:

  • absolve the government and call an election (how can another $300 million election with what would undoubtedly be a similar result fix this?)
  • if Harper so requested, delay the first vote until January in order to debase the coalition
  • recognize the coalition as the new governing party

Let’s face it, this is a tumultuous time for Canadian politics, but another election will not solve anything.  This rag tag group needs a chance to either make great decisions in government, or screw up totally and give Harper the majority that he so longs for.

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