Canada's minority Conservative government led by PM Stephen Harper was defeated in a non-confidence vote today, setting the scene for a federal election in early May.
Legislators in the House of Commons voted by 156-145 to back the motion, which was presented by the main opposition Liberal Party.
Harper's Conservatives have been hanging on because of the disunity of the Liberals, New Democrats and Bloquistes( the French in Quebec). Today, they finally got together and voted en masse to oust Harper's government and go to election.
Being Canadians, their innate decency was very much in evidence, as members of opposing parties who will be campaigning against each other in a few weeks crossed the aisles to hug each other and shake hands after the vote..including Harper and the Liberal's Michael Ignatieff, the man who orchestrated the vote of No Confidence against Harper's government.
One of the apparent issues ( aside from ideology, which was the main one) was the Left's accusation that Harper's government failed to disclose information on how the Canadian government was funding the cost of crime legislation and the purchase of stealth fighter jets.
“We are the people’s representatives,” Mr. Ignatieff said. “When the government spends money, the people have a right to know what it is to be spent on. Parliament does not issue blank cheques.”
“For four months, this House and the Canadian people were being stonewalled by this government and they are being stonewalled still,” Mr. Ignatieff said.
Harper's government has done an admirable job running Canada's economy, especially when you compare it to the previous administration. It remains to be seen whether Canadians want to go back to those days.
3 comments:
The Harper Cons didn't improve the economy... the economy was already in good shape as the result of the stewardship of the Liberal's Paul Martin when Harper came to power 5 years ago.
It is perhaps due to their own incompetence that they were unable to screw up the economy like other country's had in the years between 2006 and the present.
Odd how your opinion differs with the facts and figures!
Martin spent money like there was no tomorrow and the business climate in Canada was definitely not what it is today.
I guess we'll see if the Canadians want to return to a high tax no growth economy next May.
This reminds me of a similar argument about how 'Bush's spending ruined the US economy.'
A quick look at the Congressional Budget office's own figures reveals that while we had a deficit ( if a manageable one, considering two wars, (/11 and Katrina), the train really started jumping the tracks as of January, 2007 - which is when Pelosi and the Dems took office.
Obama merely put this process on steroids.
One of the apparent issues ( aside from ideology, which was the main one) was the Left's accusation that Harper's government failed to disclose information on how the Canadian government was funding the cost of crime legislation and the purchase of stealth fighter jets.
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