I just finished watching Stephen Harper address the nation, and I've decided one thing from it:
politicians are robots
Did ya see how he seemed so warm and wholesome at the start, then moved through what appeared to be the pre-programmed straightening of papers, followed by some oh-so-timely Italian hand motions to emphasize his points? Then he turned back into a human being again a mere two seconds before the speech was over? Did ya see it?
Flat out embarrassing.
It's pretty amazing that only two weeks ago he was happy (I use that word with a heavy dose of sarcasm, since we all know he wanted a majority) with his strengthened minority government. Now he's pretty well screwed. Either be ousted by the hated Liberals taking the helm, or resign because nobody has any trust or confidence in him.
In the speech he noted that the people voted him into power. Yes, I guess they did, but is it just me or did 62.4% of the country vote against you? Did 55% of the seats not end up in the hands of other parties? Gotta love our system... so long as a minority government is elected, most of the country hates our leader. Ya wonder why voter apathy is so rampant...
Harper also did a great job of painting all Quebeckers with the same brush: the separatists.
Funny, those were the same evil people that you Conservatives were in talks with back in 2000 there chief, back when you were toying with the idea of aligning yourself with the separatists to take on the Liberals.
Hell, back then you even said that it was against the idea of democracy for the Liberals to freeze parliament to avoid being taken down. Now you're planning the same thing?? Pot.kettle.black.
Fucking politicians, always saying whatever is convenient at the time. But in our system, why not bullshit your way through 4 years (oops, I mean less than 4 years... but isn't it now against the law to call an election whenever the powerful parties decide to? guess not...)
But let's face it, Harper fucked himself.
Making it illegal for federal workers to strike?
Presenting no ideas to help the economy, instead looking for a barely-above-water surplus that had us selling assets to appear to be breaking even?
Telling the other (poorer) parties that their $1.95 (not exact on that) per federal vote would be eliminated?
Did this cocksucker really think he'd get away with this?
That's just arrogance, plain and simple. You can only pull that sort of BS with a majority.
And now, without reaching out a hand to say "hey guys, let's all look for a way to sort this out and actually help Canadians", he instead decides to get his back up in order to save his own ass. To this date, parliament has done sweet fuck all in since the election, and ya just know he's gonna ask Jean to prorogue so we can sit on our hands while the world economy crumbles. Great plan...
And now on to the coalition:
This is just stupid.
Do you really think that Duceppe isn't licking his chops at the idea of feasting at the big-boy table? Not to mention Layton, who's eager as hell to get his foot in the door of power. And the Liberals seem to be pulling all the stops just to get back into power. You don't go that long in the land of milk and honey without getting pissed off once it's all taken away.
Not to mention the joke of a leader that they elected. So now what? Wait for the Liberals to elect the new Prime Minister, while Dion runs the show for a few months. Pretty strange that it would come to that.
This whole plan may look good on paper, but in action it'll probably falter like a Ford Pinto.
And the alienation of the West is a huge factor too. Much like Harper has thrown in the towel in Quebec, so have the Liberals in any province west of Ontario.
Nothing like a little national unity in a time of crisis, right?
I'm hoping to see Dion's response to the Harper address. But there will be one major difference: Dion won't look or act like a robot. He'll look confused as hell. That's why he's such a shit leader... he's only pretending to be a robot!
