Reality vs Steve ... and Chuck and Jim too apparently

Steve in QP today:

"Mr. Speaker, yesterday, as part of the culmination of the machinations of the leader of the NDP, we had these three parties together forming this agreement, signing a document, and they would not even have the Canadian flag behind them. They had to be photographed without it.

They had to be photographed without it because a member of their coalition does not even believe in the country. As Prime Minister it is not my responsibility to turn the keys of power over to a group like that."

... *blink* ... *blink*...

Update : Kady reports Chuck Strahl and Jim Prentice both backed him up on this afterwards at a post-QP scrum, despite the fact there were pictures of Dion, Duceppe, and Harper signing the agreement in front of at least three different Canadian flags on the front pages of papers right across the country.

At least Jim seemed to knowing he was working it - tried to get away with it and then admitted, "The point is there were not only Canadian flags behind the opposition parties."

No, Jim, there were also provincial flags, as usual, which is not at all the same thing as "they would not even have a Canadian flag behind them".

You guys are really losing it.

A Canadian coalition

Good going, you guys.

A couple of years ago I was listening to a member of a Mexican opposition party talk about his experience of being part of forming a left to centre-left coalition. It took 20 years, he said.

Various leaders had agreed to present a united front on the issues they needed each other's support for while still maintaining each party's independence. A good idea but it didn't take.

It wasn't until enough of their grassroots supporters became involved in both arguing their differences and defending the coalition at the same time that it began to work.

I hope we're up to it.

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April Reign made a great "Supporting the Coalition for Change" button on a transparent background which you can find over on the sidebar. Here's the code if you would like to display it too - just enclose it in these brackets < >

img src="http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o184/bloggingchange/coalitionbutton.png" alt="Support the Coalition" border="0" /

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April's design is based on the original Coalition Bloggers badge which you can download here, for those who would prefer not to include party logos.

Emma the Embryo and Steve's FU fans

Gilles Duceppe in the HoC on Steve's Nov 27 Fiscal Update :

"The government has decided to take advantage of the crisis to attack the rights of women and workers. The government is proposing to suspend public servants' right to strike. It has decided to attack women's rights by submitting their right to pay equity to negotiation. Since when are rights negotiable? It is scandalous. We will never accept such an attack by the government on women's and workers' rights. We will never allow it."

Dear Con talk show shlocktroops

and "every tool" in Guy Giorno's toolbox, aka "All Conservative Members of Parliament" :

If it was ok for Harper, Layton, and Duceppe to write to the GG in Sept 2004 and "respectfully point out that the opposition parties, who together constitute a majority in the House, have been in close consultation. We believe that, should a request for dissolution arise this should give you cause, as constitutional practice has determined, to consult the opposition leaders", then why are you now all huffy about "backroom deals", referring to the possibility of "a coalition you didn't vote for" as a coup?

Did Layton only become a "socialist" and Duceppe a "seperatist", as most of you seem to prefer to spell it, some time after 2004?

Also, in your comments at NaPo and CBC, where Layton has now become a full-fledged "communist", your outrage that the Bloc is "only out to destroy Canada by separating" would seem considerably more credible if you didn't respond to this perceived threat to Canadian unity with a threat of your own to resuscitate the western separation movement. Just sayin' ...

Update : Stageleft on Liberals and Socialists and Separatists ... Oh My!

We, the undersigned citizens from C.R.A.P.,

have received our talking points from Con Party headquarters :

• On October 14, Canadians gave our Conservative government a fresh mandate ...
• the Opposition parties are interested only in power and entitlements ...
• They want to replace the elected government with a backroom deal ...
• Liberals want to seize power with only an endorsement from only the socialists and the separatists.

And via Elizabeth Thompson at The Gazette : a handy C.R.A.P. list of outraged opinions listed in bullet points plus the phone numbers of appropriate talk radio call-in shows :

When you make your call :

• Think about what you want to say ahead of time.
• You may have trouble getting through your first try, so if the line is busy
  - don't give up!

Ye gods, I can hear them blowing their brains out in crayon on national radio from here.

Update from the PMO : "Use every tool at your disposal". Heh.

We, the undersigned citizens of Canada,

1. Recognize that the NDP, Liberals, Bloc Quebecois, and Greens have enough in common to form a coalition government that will better reflect the values of the majority of Canadian voters than the Conservative minority government.

2. Call on the NDP, Liberals, and Bloc Quebecois to ask Governor General Michaëlle Jean to form a coalition government.

3. Call on the NDP, Liberals, and Bloc Quebecois to govern by working together on areas of common interest and by including counsel from the Greens.

[Your signature here]

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Canadians for a Progressive Coalition - YouTube

Thanks, Steve! from Cathie - a round-up of blog reactions to the proposed coalition

Steve blinks : Non-Confidence Motion and Coalition Proposal

CP : "The Liberal motion, which has the approval of the NDP and Bloc Quebecois, reads:

"In light of the government's failure to recognize the seriousness of Canada's economic situation and its failure in particular to present any credible plan to stimulate the Canadian economy and to help workers and businesses in hard-pressed sectors such as manufacturing, the automotive industry and forestry, this House has lost confidence in this government and is of the opinion that a viable alternative government can be formed within the present House of Commons."

A source says the opposition parties have agreed that Liberal Leader Stephane Dion would lead the government for the next few months.

A combative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Friday the government won't back down on a single measure, despite the opposition threats.
"We're staying on track," Flaherty said in Toronto."This is the financial plan of the government of Canada. This is a matter of confidence."

My god, Jim, I think you've finally got it!

.CPAC Live for interviews in the foyer...

Ok, everybody get that?
Steve says the opposition wants to install Dion and a coalition government using the support of a party that wants to destroy Canada when he got the mandate, he got it, I tell you, with his 37% of the vote.
Bottom line - To avoid the non-con vote, Steve's postponing ways and means and opposition day till Dec 8.
Good. Will give the coalition time to work on their 63% mandate.

CBC poll : Yo! Canadians! Listen up!

From a live CBC online poll.

In 2003, Jean Chretien reduced the influence of special interest groups on elections by banning corporate and union donations. Private donations are capped at $1100. Arguably the best thing he ever did for Canada.

To compensate for this loss of funding, all parties who receive 2% of the vote are paid a $1.95 taxpayer subsidy per vote received, reducing the winner-take-all lopsidedness of our dumb ass first-past-the-post electoral system.
Without it the Greens would disappear, the NDP would have a much smaller voice, and fundraising would become the all-encompassing election issue it is to the south.
Very convenient for whoever is in power at the time to have fewer dissenting voices in opposition.

From Accidental Deliberations :
"Shorter Deficit Jim Flaherty : In these troubled times, opposition parties are a luxury that Canada simply can't afford."

This morning the Cons have backed down from pretending that stripping political parties of their public financing is somehow for our benefit.
Too late, jerk offs. Chretien and Broadbent are right now brokering some kind of coalition between the Bloc, the Libs, and the NDP. Good. It's a start.

Let the kid keep the pony

Sam Spiteri is 3.

He has cerebral palsy.

He can't walk but he loves his pony, Emily.

Some asshat neighbour, apparently able to distinguish the odour of Sam's pony over that of the cow farm next door, has laid a successful complaint with the town of Caledon, Ont. to have the pony removed from the Spiteri's one acre property over a zoning infraction.

Dear Township of Caledon :

The kid's single mom has paid you the $1145 you apparently require to consider letting her keep the pony. Yeah we read all about your worries regarding setting legal precedents in your local paper. How about setting a precedent to allow a severely challenged kid to have some joy in his childhood? Don't mess this one up.

Good luck to you, little kid, mom, and pony.

$7,700,000,000,000? Holy crap!

Earlier today I saw this handy click-to-enlarge pie chart at Boing Boing from Voltage Blog

The pie on the right includes the Marshall Plan, the Louisiana Purchase, the moonshot, the S&L crisis, the New deal, NASA, and the Korean, Vietnam, and Iraq wars, for a total of $4.6 trillion.

On the left we have the slightly larger 2008 bailout pie.

But then tonight I read at Bloomberg : Nope, it's not $4.6 trillion, it's $7,700,000,000,000.

At $24,000 for every man, woman and child in the US, it could pay off more than half their mortgages.

Bob Eisenbeis, economist for the Atlanta Fed for 10 years, on the lack of government oversight : "They got snookered."

But these are just loans, right? The companies will pay the taxpayers back when ... when ....

Holy crap! Isn't this the part in the movie where the seasoned old cop/FBI/CIA guy tells the anxious victim not to submit to blackmail/ransom/terrorist's demands because they will never stop their demands no matter how much you pay them and besides if you give in they're just gonna kill you/your wife/your country afterwards anyway?

Commenter Frank W at Boing Boing : "Money is a meme. It consists of the belief in it. That does not mean it does not exist, just that it consists of the belief in it. So, here's a pretty picture of a unicorn."