Ta-da!
Who can blame Stephen Harper for buckling to his knees in the face of defeat? I mean, he is only human…. right? I mean that to be a serious question – he is human? Sometimes its hard to tell, what with all of his indifference towards others, compulsive need to control others, and the strange void that is the part of his brain that creates facial expressions… and emotion.
Today the CBC reported that officials in the Conservative Government have leaked possible plans to introduce Employment Insurance reforms in an attempt to woo NDP support in the early days of this upcoming Parliamentary session. The reforms would be introduced in two parts:
- extending benefits to workers who have ‘worked for years’. With no criteria yet formalized, this presumably means that currently ineligible workers who have long paid into the system, but have taken little or no out of it will be made eligible or more eligible.
- extending maternity and paternity leave to the self-employed – a 2008 Conservative platform promise. It should also be noted, carefully, that the Tories estimated the cost of extending these benefits in their platform at $147 million in 2008.
The New Democrats have yet to make a firm commitment to supporting these reforms, due in large part to the fact that there has been no offical document or plan released by the Conservatives in regards to the reforms. These are just rumours. In fact, as I think about it more, I am inclined to believe that the whole thing is a giant posteuring move by the Conservatives to appear progressive and socially-aware during a tense and delicate political time. The Liberals have been put on to the backburner, and the NDP has taken the lead as the most important party in play here. The Bloc has been irreversibly alienated by the Tories since the Coalition issue last winter, and so they play little part in this, I would even suspect the Conservatives turn down the Bloc should they be the only ones to extend their confidence to the Government.
What will be interesting to see is what route the internal factions inside the NDP will take on this issue. The way I see it, they can go both ways and still not compromise the values and morals of the party base. They can be the ones to pull the plug on the Harper Gang and stand tall over the broken and hollow Conservative Government, or they can accept the reforms and make incremental successes in taking progressive consessions out of the Tories, naturally by putting the fear of their own defeat (even more terrifying than God) into their souls.
I, for one, would much prefer to hold off an election until the Liberals can open up a clear majority over the Government, and we will no longer need to achieve progress by resorting to this perverse, yet democratic, coersion that Canadian politics inevitably boils down to.
I thirst for a Canada and a Government I can be proud in. Right now, with our country at dead-last in the UN’s Action on Climate Change scale, with the outrageous failures in our dealing with Canadian citizens outside our borders, we have very little to be proud of. With our unexplainable absence in the dealing with of homelessness, we have very little to brag about.
Canada’s heart has stalled for the last decade. We desperately need a change, but we simply can’t afford the change we need right now.
New Democrats; push for bipartisanship this session – save Canada another useless and risky election. Chances are we will have another Tory Minority. That translates into another ‘mandate’ buzz-word crazed 2 months by Harper and Flarherty.
No one wants that…
By the way, check me out at one of my new thought-storages on the Canadian internet at KnowYourVote.ca.
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