 |
Add to My Group
Coalition Against An Autocrat
By Jerry West (about the author) Page 1 of 1 page(s)
For OpEdNews: Jerry West - Writer
"People are genuinely upset," said Dick Clancy, local Conservative Party President, "We organized this event because so many people were calling us. They want to know more about what is happening; they want to talk about it and they want to know that people are listening."
John Duncan said "We have had a lot of feedback, and it has been overwhelmingly against the notion of this coalition simply taking power without a mandate from the people. There are constitutional experts making arguments on all sides of this issue, but in the end Canadians expect to choose their government and if you try to take away their voice you will do so at your peril."
One doesn't know whether to laugh, cry or both at the ignorance exhibited by the opponents of the coalition, and the blatant misrepresentation of the situation by the Conservatives and their supporters. The people may want to talk about it and know what is happening, but they certainly are not getting the correct information from those who have a vested interest in discrediting the coalition.
The negative response to the coalition idea exposes a serious problem in the state of Canada. Most of its citizens appear to be ignorant when it comes to how their government is designed to function. In an Ipsos Reid poll conducted recently fifty-one percent of Canadians polled believed that the Prime Minster is directly elected by voters, and seventy-five percent did not know who the Head of State is.
It is no wonder that a simple democratic manouevre made by the parties representing the vast majority of voters has raised so much ruckus. Many of those jumping up and down with their hair on fire have no real idea of what is going on, and are being lead by the nose, much like ignorant people have been everywhere from time immemorial.
What really happened is not a perversion of democracy, as the right wing wants everyone to believe, but a true expression of it to protect the interests that almost two thirds of Canadians voted for in the last election. What really happened is that Prime Minister Stephen Harper tried to bully the majority of Parliament like a tin pot dictator and got called on it.
With only the support of little more than a third of the voters and a minority position in Parliament, Mr. Harper should be working constructively with the other parties in the best interests of the country. Instead he set out to destroy those parties, and spit in the eye of most Canadians. Only weeks after one unnecessary election that cost millions he put forward a confidence issue that gave the other parties three choices, knuckle under and accept what most Canadians don't want, go to another expensive election this winter, or threaten to use their majority control of Parliament to take power. For the good of Canada they did the right thing, they threatened to take over the government if Harper proceeded with his autocratic attitude.
Mr. Harper saved his skin for the time being by getting the Governor General to prorogue Parliament before a confidence vote could be taken. And, it appears he is now in a conciliatory mode, actually talking to the other parties about what to do next. If he pulls in his horns and only proceeds with legislation that the majority supports, the coalition will have achieved a success for all of us.
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
 Contact Author |
Contact Editor |
 View Authors' Articles |
by Coalition on the Niagara Escarpment Staff
$33.75
Number of pages:
Publisher: Coalition on the Niagara Escarpment, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
| No comments |
Want to post your own comment on this Article? 
|
||||
|
||||||||||||||
Must Read (0) 
Well Said (0) 
News (0) 
Touching (0) 
Funny (0) 
Supported (0) 
Interesting (0) 
Inspiring (0) 
Valuable (0) Tell a Friend:
|
Copyright © 2002-2009, OpEdNews |
