Paul S. Graham

Liberal blogger Scott Tribe, progressive blogger Kelly John and Dipper Chick, in the spirit of political cooperation that is spreading across the land, have designed a badge (on the left) to show support for the new Liberal-NDP-BQ coalition

They plan to launch a website – coalitionbloggers.ca – but it’s not live at this point. They have asked for suggestions on the form this new website should take. I hope you can take a moment or many to send them your suggestions.

I am loathe to make predictions, but if the traffic to my obscure little part of the Internet is any indication, there will be lots of takers for this discussion.

Not all of them will be supportive and I hope that Coalition Bloggers will make room for all shades of opinion, including those who happen to think Stephen Harper should continue as PM.

While I suspect a majority of Canadian voters will be happy to see Harper’s back, there is a large chunk of the Canadian population who supported him in the last election. Dismissing them as Tory douchebags and fuckbaskets is counterproductive.

Leaving aside some of the sleazier political operatives who are beyond redemption and who would be lost without their talking points, there are lots of folks with whom we can have a respectful debate. I hope that will happen at Coalition Bloggers.

It is one thing to support replacing Harper with a coalition that better reflects the views of Canadians, it is quite another to give this coalition a blank cheque.

Never forget that the Liberals are the party of big business, and they will have to be pushed really hard to get them to devise an economic program that addresses the needs of working Canadians. They are the folks who got us into Afghanistan, which history will judge as one of Canada’s more disgraceful interventions. If they choose Michael Ignatieff as their leader (barely and recently repentant apologist for the invasion of Iraq), our foreign policy isn’t likely to improve. And never forget Adscam.

On the NDP side of the equation, those of us who have experienced the NDP in government can assure you, contrary to the excited bleatings of the Tory spin machine, New Dems left socialism behind a long time ago. This is unfortunate, to say the least. In the provinces where they’ve had political success they have tended to run from the left and govern from the right, not unlike the Liberals.

So, Vive la Coalition, but we will have to hold their feet to the fire if the dreams of those who support a “progressive” coalition are going to be taken seriously.

Coalition Bloggers – Goodonya. Let a hundred flowers bloom ‘n all that! I’ll post a more permanent link when your website is functional.

Manitoba Tory MP Vic Toews (formerly Justice Minister, now Treasury Board president) was on CBC Radio moments ago saying he didn’t think it was unethical for the Conservatives to listen to an NDP conference call, record it and disseminate it to the media. So, if we are looking for the Tories’ moral compass, it might possibly be under a couple of feet of snow somehwere out in “law ‘n order Vic’s” Provencher Constituency.

Put this together with convincing evidence that the Harper Tories tried to bribe terminally ill MP Chuck Cadman in return for his vote to bring down the Liberals prior to the 2006 election and Elections Canada allegations that the Tories deliberately violated federal elections law by spending about $1.1 million over its national limit on media advertising and filing misleading statements in its official returns and it is clear these folks can’t be trusted to know right from wrong.

Given this moral bankruptcy, it won’t be surprising if Harper tries to cling to power by proroguing the House and dodging next week’s non-confidence vote. This, however, will not help him in the least. To the contrary, it will only confirm the judgment of the 62 per cent of Canadian voters who supported the parties now making up the coalition government in waiting — that Harper cannot be trusted with power and that the sooner he is gone the better.

There is more than a whiff of criminality surrounding the Harper government. Earlier this year a taped interview of Prime Minister Harper indicated he was aware of Conservative Party officials attempts to bribe MP Chuck Cadman in order to bring down the Liberal government. Now we have this odious business of the Conservatives secretly recording an NDP conference call and releasing it to the media via the PM’s office.

According to the Criminal Code of Canada,

184 [1] Every one who, by means of any electro-magnetic, acoustic, mechanical or other device, wilfully intercepts a private communication is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years.

The NDP has said that it will raise the action as a violation of parliamentary ethics and will consider pressing charges.

Let’s hope they do. In my view, the second order of business for the new coalition government (after addressing the economic challenges we face) would be to hold these lawless Tories accountable.

Update: Winnipeg support for coalition government grows

Yesterday I reported that a Winnipeg Free Press Reader’s Poll had 51% supporting the formation of a Liberal-NDP coalition. Since then, the support for a coalition government has grown considerably.

Should the Opposition topple the federal Tory government?

No. 28%
Yes, and force an election. 2%
Yes, and form a governing coalition. 68%

Total Votes: 6455