After listening to the Harper Government, it’s representatives and supporters the only thing I can suggest is that they all go back to school. Things like simple math, logic problems and civics all seem to be lost on them.
Harper claims that Dion does not have the right to form a government without an election but, under a parliamentary system, he most certainly does – if he can put together a coalition of other parties strong enough to outvote the minority Conservatives.
Harper’s supporters claim that this is a (I kid you not) ‘coup d’etat’ , demonstrating that they don’t know what that means. A coup is a military overthrow of the government.
The same supporters claim that the will of the Canadian people is being subverted but only 37% voted for Harper. That means that 63% voted for other parties. If, in a minority situation, the government is so bad at compromise that they can’t appease any of the other parties, those parties (representing 63% of the electorate) may band together and put forward a more democratically popular agenda.
Harper and his supporters claim that they are being forced to subsidize parties they don’t like, but under the current system a party gets $1.95 for each vote they get. So each person is subsidizing the party they vote for and only the party they vote for. This insures that the popular support of the electorate is more important than the support of interest groups, large corporations and the very wealthy. Apparently this doesn’t sit will with Conservatives.
Mr. Flaherty claims that the government is running a balanced budget, but in order to achieve that they have to sell 10 billion dollars worth of government assets. The government paid small fortunes for those assets and would be selling into a seriously depressed market. Does buy high sell low sound like good economics? Also remember that when Mr. Flaherty was working for Mike Harris the incoming McGuinty government was told that the books were in balance, only to find on taking office that they were several billion dollars in the hole. Sadly the Conservative finance minister doesn’t even seem to have basic math skills.
It is time for conservative supporters, their party and their representatives to take a break from politics until they get a firm grasp on basic math, civics, parliamentary government and democracy.