Well, it seems there are some interesting times ahead for Canadian politics following the tabling of Stephen Harper’s new budget. As expected, the budget features many concessions to sway the opposition parties to support the Conservative budget and allow them to remain in the seat of government. And while the NDP and the Bloc Québécois have held steadfast to their plans of bringing Harper’s government down by rejecting this budget, it would appear that Michael Ignatieff has other plans in mind despite his earlier support for this opposition-led coalition. Following the release of the full budget, Ignatieff has changed his position to express conditional support for this budget – the condition being the inclusion of an amendment that would require the Conservatives to submit three economic reports to follow-up on whether this economic stimulus package is indeed having the desired effect or whether it is simply pulling Canada into debt.

It’s certainly a bold move, one that will be closely watched to see what impact it will have down the road on Harper’s Conservatives, that is should Harper agree to this amendment. After all, Harper has already made numerous concessions to the opposition parties; despite whatever spin Flaherty and Harper try to put on their budget, I don’t think anyone sees this as being Click here to continue reading »”Ignatieff’s Budgetary Gambit – Win, Lose, or Draw?”

Yesterday, Canadians were reminded of just how much power they have as voters in a democratic society. At the beginning of the day, the news broke out that two national parties – specifically the PC and NDP parties – were forcing television networks to exclude Green Party leader Elizabeth May from the upcoming leadership debates for this year’s federal election. The reason provided by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and NDP leader Jack Layton was that the arrangement between May and Liberal Party leader Stephan Dion to not run candidates in each other’s riding amounted to May being a closet Liberal supporter and her presence at the leadership debates would give the Liberal party two voices for their platform. The PC and NDP leaders went so far as to threaten to boycott these debates if the networks dared to include May. As such, the consortium of networks that carry the debates had no choice but to tell May that she would not be given a place in the leadership debates to present her party’s platform to the voting public.

As the day progressed and news of this exclusion of May from the debates seeped into the public conscious, something wonderful happened – the public got angry. Very angry. And with good reason – Click here to continue reading »”A Great Example Of The Power of Citizens in Democracy”