Comments on: Why Not John McCallum as Interim Coalition Leader?

By: hsc

hsc — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 06:36:52 +0000

Greg: If it’s true that you’ve joined the Green Party staff as it says in this Globe and Maili article, then I’m very disappointed that you haven’t announced your decision to become a partisan party worker.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090301.wPOLgreens0301/BNStory/politics/home

Let me be clear: I have no problem with people turning from non-partisan to partisan, but as an ardent reader of democratic space with the impression that this is a non-partisan blog (as it still says so in your bio), I believe that I and your other readers deserve to know the following:

(1) Are you really the national campaign chair for the Green Party, as the above article suggests?

(2) If so, how long have you been consulting or contributing information to the Green Party exclusive to all other political parties??

Thanks. I hope democraticspace can continue to be maintained with no perceived or actual bias or partisanship.

By: markus

markus — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 21:20:27 +0000

“The Toronto Star is reporting that he is likely to step down before Christmas. John McCallum and Ralph Goodale are mentioned as possible interim leaders.”
While I agree with your assertion about McCallum’s economic experience, I think Goodale would be a better.
1. Ralph has finance experience, including that as Finance MInister at the federal level.
2. Also the fact that he is a Westerner may take some of the wind of the Western Separatist movement and the sentiment that Central Canada, specifically Quebec is perpetrating a power grab.
3.Goodale is a much better public speaker than McCallum. (In my opinion, McCallum sounds a little too much like Elmer Fudd, despite his obvious competence on economic issues)

McCallum would make a good finance minister in a coalition government.

By: derik

derik — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 23:54:21 +0000

how prophetic … I guess I was hoping people would see through Harper going to see the GG as an attempt run and hide from an impending non-confidence vote and thus, hoping for a response similar to that of Lord Bing.

I now suspect that all the vitriol and yelling was planned in order to obscure the fact that Harper would be hiding from a non-confidence vote.

I guess we have about six week of Harper going around the country and doling ’stimulus’ money to mainly Quebec.

At least the opposition finally grew a spine!

By: democraticspace

democraticspace — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 06:15:50 +0000

Louise, I am told that it was Harper himself that pushed for the inclusion of the party funding measure. And his chief of staff did not discourage him, but others did.

Yes, I suspect that Jean will grant a suspension of parliament until the end of January. What will Harper do with that time? He will implement the economic stimulus that the coalition has called for. That will put the coalition in a difficult position at the end of January. Bring down the government for doing exactly what you would do?

Harper is not stupid, but I would buy that he’s arrogant. But he miscalculated that the opposition wouldn’t have the backbone to bring him down. No doubt he looks weaker today than he did a week ago.

By: Louise M

Louise M — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:32:35 +0000

Greg,

Unless some miracle happens, forget the pragmatic solution you suggested. Most people here do not seem to understand how terrible this situation is. But, putting it into perspective, so what? Probably Harper will get his “stay time” from the Honourable Michael Jean tomorrow. One can only hope that she will refuse to be ‘bullied’ by the Head Bully. One also wonders who the Governor General has to advise her on what to do constitutionly in the present set of circumstances.

The news media tonight, tried in their biased, unbiased way to report the taped speeches from all the leaders involved. Was it balanced reporting? It is hard to say, because at least one half of the story had to do with how the coalition parties are apparently unravelling because of a late tape delivered to the networks, apparently a Liberal Party failure…

Yet the media (for the most part) left out tonight, the real reason this is happening now, by not making the audience clear on HOW this happened with Harper behaving irresponsibly and vengefully as PM in a minority situation. The real issue was never the lack of stimulus to deal with the economic recession.

It was all about the trying to weaken the other parties with changing the electoral reforms which made political party funding FAIR, and it was also about weakening the labour movement.

As Rex Murphy said two nights ago, Harper is either arrogant or stupid. I thought to myself immediately that he is both. And as the columnist Ian Macdonald said yesterday in a column, Harper’s key advisor should be fired. His job was to advise Harper on strategy and management of the government. He simply should have told Harper, “No, are you crazy? …You cannot do this. It will not go over well…”

I have supported the NDP since before I was voting age, BUT, I am not happy with this move in the here and the now. The NDP could have benefitted by becoming part of a coalition government. The timing of this seems wrong because there are so many voters who cannot accept Stephane Dion with the big title of Prime Minister. But perhaps this is exactly the reason that Harper thought he could get away with trying to force his own (partisan) agenda on the Canadain people without having a majority… And he deserves, because of this, all the problems he is having now.

At least we know we do have an opposition that is alive and kicking!

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 21:14:33 +0000

@ Greg,
Ok, so then i think he would be better then Dion but i also think that i prefer some other elections prior as Stephane Dion to be Premier…I think the PCC MPs should all resign and force a general eclection by too many by-elections!!

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:22:22 +0000

As well, language like “who have lost the confidence of the majority of Canadian MPs”. Wait until a vote before you make such a statement. As we all know, a lot can happen in politics in a mere couple of hours.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 19:20:33 +0000

@ Greg, my bad in respect to who you voted for. Regardless, the tone of your previous blog post, which has now been deleted, was far from non-partisan.

By: Louise M

Louise M — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 05:25:46 +0000

Greg, I like your idea… I do not understand why people can’t think in terms of democratic compromise! Stephane Dion staying on as leader and becoming PM would be bad because the majority of Canadian voters rejected him as leader. The other choices of leadership candidates makes the whole thing unworkable for all parties. McCallum could do what the job requires and perhaps even more, given the fact he would be an interim leader. It might serve to make the NDP & Bloc behave better during a two year agreement, simply because he would not be vying to become PM…

Brilliant and creative thinking, Greg… If only you were now a strategist for the Liberals…

By: Hank the crank

Hank the crank — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:59:44 +0000

lets get rid of the liberals for the next century and canada will be much better off….who needs any of the l…… who were parts of the chretien/martin era….