Mandy just shouted up to me that the Liberals are dead. The opposition parties, led mainly by Steven Harper’s Conservatives, have forced another election with a vote of non-confidence.
What I’m still trying to figure out is why the NDP would vote along with the Conservatives and Bloc on this. Their handful of MPs effectively had the much larger Liberal contigent by the balls. They could have gotten the Liberals to pass virtually any bill they put forward.
Or maybe not. Maybe those NDP pushed too hard, too fast, and Martin decided he’d rather take his chances in another election than spend another year pandering to Layton.
Harper, I’m sure, will be out taking credit for toppling the government, though he really didn’t have much to do with it. What he doesn’t seem to realize is that by taking credit of it now, he is winning the blame of voters when they are forced to trek out the booths in Canada’s coldest month.
And that’s politics as usual, in Canada.
Ken Dyck 