Buyer's Remorse

This coalition government business is totally insane, and yet it’s totally legitimate.

That’s insane.

In the midst of an economic crisis heavily affected (and largely sustained) by speculation – and certainly not amicable to any unplanned turbulence among its superstructural elements – parliament’s three opposition parties, soundly defeated in an election eight weeks ago, are seeking to usurp the rights of their vanquisher to his prize.

The current Prime Minister of Canada, a man whose party received the largest plurality of votes in the last election – and who had (until last week) been believed by both friends and detractors to be a brilliant and shrewd political mastermind - will soon see the crowning achievement of his life torn away from him. Instead of being the architects of a new Conservative political order, his party will be forever remembered as one which destroyed its own government through spite and hubris at a speed unprecedented in Canadian history.

Meanwhile, the new coalition government of Canada will be headed by a man who recently resigned from the leadership of its most successful political party (after leading them to their worst electoral performance in the history of Confederation), and his steps towards restoring stability to the country’s economy will be largely charted by a man whose party made braking what are perceived to be its largest engines of growth a key platform in the last election. The lifespan of this government continues only as long as it retains the precipitous support of a man whose party believes the existence of the country it governs to be illegitimate.

No one in the last election who cast a ballot ever imagined this government appearing – much less voted for or against it – but yet in an ironic twist it’s somehow more “democratic” than the government it’s replacing.

Above all, this is entirely by the book. The hockey game we bought tickets for is actually going to be a rugby match, but according to the stadium’s management, that’s okay. Buyer beware: the athletes whose salaries you pay are going to play whatever game they want – regardless of whether or not you’d like, hate, or even ask to see it. The inmates, it turns out, have full run of their asylum.

Whether or not you sympathise with the Conservative government that brought this on itself or prefer the alternative of Danny Williams’ dream team “Anyone But Conservative” government, this situation should give you some pause for thought. Forget everything you thought you knew about politics – literally anything can happen. Once you cast your vote, the ball is entirely in the politicians’ court to play whatever crazy power games they want.

If this idea – that you don’t really have that much say in how your country is run – doesn’t bother you on at least some fundamental level, then you might be too emotionally invested in this partisan shell game for your own good.

As for the rest of us, it may actually be time to start asking about where exactly the peoples’ authority in this supposed democracy actually has gone, and what it’s going to take to start getting it back.

Otherwise, we may all soon wind up going off the rails on this crazy train.

*solos*

canadian political history; a pictorama

an authentic photograph of stephen harper reading this article earlier today











welp, looks like harper just got diowned









(a pm who lose the confidence of he own parliament..

a shameful pm)











as an aside canada now almost resembles a grownup democracy like italyaustria or some crazy bullshit, hooray

this has been a presentation by a member of memorial university's political science honours class of 2009; for more of this kind of insightful commentary, please continue to support publicly funded post-secondary education with your tax dollars

Whatever doesn't kill you...

[hey this is a p. bad post but fortunately this might be a lot more readable!!]

As it turns out, Prime Minister Harper will be in Peru today promoting free trade at the APEC summit this weekend.

Quoth the raven,

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to tout free trade as an antidote to the global economic crisis when he attends the 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Peru this weekend.

Free and open markets are the best way to ensure the global economy rebounds quickly, according to Harper, who departs for Lima on Friday morning.

Of course! The best cure for a global crisis brought on by unregulated markets is to deregulate more markets, naturally.

It’s good to see the Conservatives are still as ideological as ever – I was beginning to worry they might respond to our economic stress in a way that made sense.

Fortunately Tom d’Aquino of the completely non-biased Canadian Council of Chief Executives is setting the record straight:

Tom d'Aquino, president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, said APEC leaders must push hard to keep markets open.

"The worst thing in the world at a time of great difficulty would be if people would try to build up barriers and fortresses against direct foreign investment or the openness of international trade," d'Aquino said.

He’s right, the worst thing a small nation could do right now would be to take steps to maximise their right to economic self-determination and use what little control they have over their economic destiny to try and inoculate themselves against what is essentially a viral pandemic in neo-liberal capitalism.

You would think that if anyone gleaned anything from watching the evolution of the current financial quagmire, it would be that any advice coming from an organisation made up of CEOs should probably be immediately discarded.

Maybe instead someone should try listening to these guys for once.

"History has shown that crises on this scale lead to social and political instability with unpredictable and often tragic results. Working families have an enormous stake in the response to this crisis. Already, for more than two decades social cohesion has been under stress as a result of growing inequality in most countries. Today, those who are losing homes, jobs and pensions as a result of the financial crisis, for which they bear no responsibility, as taxpayers are being called on to bail-out those who are responsible. The G20 governments [they're not talking APEC in this context, but the same principles apply - ed.] must acknowledge the urgent need to begin work on a more inclusive, just and democratic system for the governance of global markets."