Dispatch from the Frozen North

I take pleasure in posting some guest comments by friend and commenter Wimpy Canadian, who will be sending messages to Paco Enterprises periodically (printed in a microdot on the underside of the cap on a bottle of Molson Ale, and shipped in by dog sled).

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For those Americans who are truly enthralled of Canadian politics, this week has been a hectic, exciting, roller-coaster of events. You may have seen previous O/T postings on Paco Enterprise's web site by me. Now. Paco Enterprises has invested heavily in this news feed; it cost a lot but I'm sure Paco will figure out how to capitalize on it.

Basically, in Parliament, the three opposition parties out-number the Conservatives, who form the Government. They threatened to out-vote the Government on a Vote of Confidence, which would ordinarily cause an election. But, we just had a Federal Election 9 weeks ago. This Grand Coalition of the Socialist New Democratic Party (NDP) AKA "the Knee Dippers", the Liberals AKA "the Natural Ruling Party", and the Quebec Province Separatist party, The Bloc Quebecois AKA the Separatists, had an alternative suggestion for the Governor General of Canada, the Queen of England's representative.

They, with exact legal correctness, pointed out that an election was not necessary as, although the Conservatives had lost the confidence of the houses (the Liberals also control the unelected Senate) of Parliament, the Coalition does have a majority of Parliament. She (The Governor General is a cute lady from Haiti) could simply ask the Coalition to form a government.

However, this suggestion was met with outrage from Canadians. The polling numbers are stupendous; in American terms, they would make The One envious. We are talking of mass hostility to the idea, 75% wise.

To give everyone an idea here how this has really caught the attention of the populace, I had a discussion today concerning the Grand Collusion with someone in my local pub who would be one of the last I would expect to be interested in politics. I, of course, follow a policy of no politics in my local pub. I go there to relax and shoot the breeze and not be concerned about the great questions of life, such as "What of Canada?".

This man thought it that it was wrong the Coalition could form a government as they didn't run as a Coalition in the last election; he didn't vote for the separatists (the Separatists only run candidates in the Province of Quebec). I explained to him that, legally, they could; but that, also, he was right; it would be morally wrong for them to do so.

If you need anecdotal evidence of an upcoming election result, there it is.

Now, for The Natural Ruling Party, which has run the country for 75-80% of it's history, you'd think that they would have their finger on the pulse of the nation. Well, think again. The Liberal party is in a "leadership" crisis. Their current, recently interim, and now soon to be executed, leader, Stephane Dion, is incompetent but signed the coalition agreement at the cunning behest of Taliban Jack Layton, leader of the Knee Dippers. There is supposed to be a leadership convention in May, but, given the need for the Coalition to vote down the government when the budget is announced on January 27th, this guy must go now.

There are now only two Liberal Party leadership contenders; the third, Dominic LeBlanc, dropped out today. It's now down to the Dueling Duo: B-Ray and Iggy The Silent.

Pow! Lie! Whack! Biff! Spend!

So B-Ray and Iggy The Silent will battle out the leadership rapidly. A sudden-death Super-Hero duel.

B-Ray is out pumping the Grand Collusion across the country and has the Liberal Party Establishment's support; hey, The Cretin is a family relative and his brother runs the Toronto Dominion Bank. B-Ray was once the Knee Dipper Premier of the most populace province of Canada, Ontario, He ran it into the ground. Not bad for a socialist, to have a brother running a Bank!

Iggy the Silent is also Iggy The Outsider. He probably doesn't want the Grand Collusion but it may be too late to stop the train wreck. Thus, he is not answering questions about the Coalition. Heck, he spent 20 years at Harvard; even a Harvard professor can see reality when staring him in the face. He is, in fact, in a bit of a bind. The NRP has, traditionally, sold themselves as the party able to defeat the Separatists, and then provoked the Separatists, so they could prove their point. Basically, the NRP has held the country hostage, via the Separatist bogeyman, for 40 years,. This is now collapsing and, in desperation, the NRP Establishment, including The cretin, is making deals with the Separatists to to form a "Coalition" to retake the Comfy Chairs of Government that is naturally theirs. Iggy does not agree with the establishment on this.

The Liberals are still in control of many other national institutions, such as the tax-payer funded CBC (like PBS but much more so) and the judiciary and the press and the banks. So, they still wield power. But, Harper is coming to re-arrange them. They are paranoid of this rather boring, but smart, person. They are calling in all their media and establishment markers to fight the Evil Harper. However, they have screwed themselves with the Grand Collusion in Parliament with the Separatists, to bring Senddown the Evil Harper's Conservative Government.

This "Coalition" has possibly killed the Liberal Party of Canada. hehe.

We are also seeing something else going on here: a struggle over the Canadian constitution. In the British Parliamentary system, it is said that "Parliament is Sovereign". Now, in Canada, we are seeing the argument, from the commoners, that, no, in fact the people are sovereign. No small potatoes this.

To be sporadically continued....