Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Iggy, You Want - Reports?

If the Toronto Star is right, the Iggy Liberals are everything I feared they could become.

The paper claims that Ignatieff has offered to support Stephen Harper's ridiculously flawed, overpriced, do-nothing budget - if Harpo agrees to provide "periodic economic statements" to parliament.

Puffing himself up as perhaps no one else can, Iggy said, "We are putting this government on probation." Gee, Mike, I thought a minority government with an unruly opposition was always on probation. Was I missing something?

"We will be watching like hawks to make sure the investments Canadians need actually reach them," he said. Gee, he sounds to me a lot more like the legendary Norwegian Blue than any manner of hawk.

Let's get this straight. The interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, our nation's Official Opposition, is content to allow Canada in the face of this fiscal emergency to wallow haplessly under the weight of Harper's visionless bailout budget. If Ignatieff supports this budget, that's exactly what he has done.

If Ignatieff supports Harper on this one, he'll chalk up one more odious similarity to our Furious Leader - he'll put his personal political fortunes ahead of the interests of Canada.

Harper's budget is the fiscal equivalent of kicking a soccer ball halfway up a steep hill. It's a lot of effort to get nowhere.

I'm sorry Mr. Ignatieff but periodic reports aren't going to do bugger all for Canadians and their economy and neither is Harper's budget. If you support this budget, Mikey, you're saying "okay" to everything that's in it - and that's anything but okay to me.

3 comments:

Pearce said...

I think the thrust of Ignatieff's statement is "Canadians got the government they deserve, so I'll leave it up to them to judge the work that is done over the coming months"

Better to let someone commit suicide than to murder them, at least from Ignatieff's perspective. The problem, as you put it, is the collateral damage in the meantime.

Ignatieff outlined numerous things he didn't like about the budget, but didn't propose any amendments on them. Seems like he really wants this to be a Conservative budget with Liberal oversight.

penlan said...

What a bloody farce this all is. More of the same from Iggy. It's all a big joke. Prop up the Cons as they decimate Canada & it's people & it's govt.

The Mound of Sound said...

Pearce, if that's Iggy's thrust he ought to be horsewhipped back to Harvard for his arrogance. The 62% of Canadians who didn't vote for Harper just might not have got the government they deserve, certainly not the government they wanted.

If Canada is facing the enormous fiscal emergency all leaders, including Ignatieff, claim, then rank partisan politics ("childish things") have to be put aside and they have to put their duty to Canada first.

I'd be content to have a Canadian leader with even just half the moral courage of the guy they've got in the States. We don't.