XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ab.politics   
   XPost: sk.politics, man.politics, mtl.general   
   From: Paula@nyet.ca   
      
   And tell Justin Trudeau and Thomas Mulcair to get on with it!  We've had enough   
   of rightwing governments to last us two lifetimes and the only way to stop   
   Harper is to unite the Liberals and the NDP as a coalition party.   
      
   Write them both over Christmas and demand they set aside their differences and   
   get on with uniting their common goals and policies.  They need to think beyond   
   their own animosities.   
   Coalition governments are needed in Canada.  It's time that 30%-in-the-polls   
   governments are made a flaw of the past.   
      
   Email:			thomas.mulcair@parl.gc.ca   
   				justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca   
   ___________________________________________   
   Andrew Perez, National Post | December 24, 2014 |   
      
      
   Andrew Perez: In 2015, a coalition government is totally plausible. But is it   
   desirable?   
      
   Many of the factors that derailed Stéphane Dion and Jack Layton in 2008 are no   
   longer in play.   
      
      
   As Finance Minister Jim Flaherty stood to address a packed House of Commons, I   
   sat in the gallery with my non-partisan colleagues in anticipation of what we   
   assumed would be a routine fiscal update.   
      
   It most certainly would not be.   
      
   By the time Flaherty took his seat, he had promised to suspend the ability of   
   civil servants to strike and eliminate the per-vote subsidy on which all   
   parties relied for funding.   
   And no stimulus plan was included in the fiscal update, despite the largest   
   economic downturn since the Great Depression.   
      
   It was Nov. 27, 2008 — six weeks following a sleepy fall election that had   
   returned a second minority government for Stephen Harper.  As I shuffled out of   
   the Commons gallery with my fellow parliamentary interns, we exchanged confused   
   glances, uncertain as to what we had observed and whether it would have   
   ramifications for the new Parliament.   
      
   We did not have to wait long for the answer.   
      
   Within hours, all three opposition parties had united, setting the wheels in   
   motion to topple the Harper Conservatives and form a coalition government.   
   Within days, they had signed a formal agreement.  And just weeks later, by the   
   time we returned to Ottawa after the holiday break, Stephen Harper’s stunning   
   prorogation of Parliament had allowed him to escape political demise — and   
   the   
   vitality of the progressive coalition had withered.   
      
   Fast forward to 2015.  Political circumstances have changed such that the next   
   federal election offers the first real opportunity to revisit the plausibility   
   and desirability of a coalition government in Canada.  But why did the proposed   
   coalition government of 2008 fail in the first place?   
      
   There are three key reasons:   
      
   First, the coalition’s integrity was dependent on parliamentary support from   
   the separatist Bloc Québécois.  This enabled the Harper Conservatives to   
   paint   
   the coalition as a threat to national unity.   
      
   Second, the coalition crisis hit Ottawa in the midst of a severe recession.   
   With economic insecurities pervasive among Canadians, economists and political   
   analysts warned that a left-leaning coalition government would threaten a   
   fragile Canadian economy.   
      
   Third, the coalition was ultimately a victim of feeble leadership in the   
   Liberal Party.  Having just been rejected by voters six weeks prior, Stéphane   
   Dion was not a credible candidate to lead a government.   
      
   Today, none of these circumstances persist.   
      
   The Bloc Québécois is a marginalized fourth party with grim electoral   
   prospects, the global and national financial recoveries are largely on track,   
   and charismatic Liberal leader Justin Trudeau has the overwhelming support of   
   his party.  Furthermore, with the NDP’s support stalled in third place and   
   the   
   Trudeau Liberals losing some ground in recent months, it’s appearing   
   increasingly likely that neither party will be able to defeat the Conservatives   
   outright in 2015.   
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   So a 2015 coalition is more plausible. Is it desirable?   
      
   For progressives, a coalition government would first and foremost serve as a   
   direct means of dislodging Harper.  And from a progressive standpoint, it would   
   be a net positive for Canada in public policy terms.   
      
   ==>>   Major government social and tax policies could be fundamentally   
   overhauled by a coalition government — particularly on issues where Liberals   
   and New Democrats see eye to eye.  For example, one could reasonably envision a   
   Trudeau-Mulcair team swiftly reversing the current government’s regressive   
   policy on income splitting, introducing a vastly different approach to handling   
   international diplomacy and tackling global climate change and child-care   
   issues.    <<==   
      
   It would instantly bestow a sense of common purpose to progressive   
   parliamentarians.  The Liberals and New Democrats would be expected to table a   
   legislative agenda and fiscal plan in short order that balanced the policy   
   priorities and cultures of both parties.   Of necessity, they would find   
   innovative ways to co-operate.   
      
   Pundits aren’t the only ones reaching for a coalition as a solution to a   
   decade   
   of Conservative rule.   
      
   An recent EKOS Research poll suggests Canadians are now open to the idea of   
   coalition government too, with 54% supporting a hypothetical Liberal-NDP   
   coalition over a Conservative   
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   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^   
   minority government.   
   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^   
      
   Assuming Liberals and New Democrats could lower their swords after election   
   night, a number of barriers would still need to be overcome for a coalition   
   government to be viable: The Harper Conservatives would of course have to lose   
   their majority in the next general election.   
      
   Political progressives, parliamentary traditionalists, and those with   
   democratic imagination would have to overcome cynical Conservative messaging   
   about what constitutes a legitimate government.   
      
   But almost six years to the day of the 2008 fiscal update, I found myself   
   sitting in the Commons gallery once again — this time watching over dozens of   
   Liberal and NDP MPs aggressively questioning the government on cuts to   
   veterans’ mental health services.  It struck me that they could just as   
   easily   
   be working together in opposition or in government.   
      
   If it came to pass, the results could fundamentally alter the way in which we   
   view parliamentary democracy.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)