Stooges stage coup
Stooges stage coup
Professor, socialist and separatist make their foolish move
By GREG WESTON
Ottawa Sun
The federal opposition parties have apparently decided the best way to deal with the world’s worst economic crisis in decades is to create a political disaster of equal proportion.
Yesterday, the three leaders who lost the last election inked a devil’s deal to save the economy by seizing control of the government from Stephen Harper and the Conservatives.
If all goes to plan, Mr. Bean will replace Mr. Mean as prime minister as early as next week, maintained in power by an unholy alliance of the Three Stooges.
For the next six months, Stephane Dion would hop into bed with NDP boss Jack Layton and separatist leader Gilles Duceppe in return for the Liberals’ hapless honcho getting the keys to 24 Sussex Dr. and a bulletproof limo.
Next May, Dion would be replaced for another two years by whomever wins the Liberal leadership.
The fun is just beginning.
The opposition parties’ entire justification for this coalition of the witless is the supposed need to rush through new federal spending measures to stimulate the economy.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has already moved up the date for the next federal budget from late February to the last week of January.
That would give the Canadian government a chance to see what the new U.S. administration in Washington has in mind for the auto sector and the rest of the U.S. economy after Barack Obama is sworn in as president on Jan. 20.
But the coalition claims that’s not fast enough to start throwing around other people’s money on this side of the border.
In the words of the coalition’s communique yesterday, a new coalition government is required immediately to “effectively, prudently and promptly address these critical economic times.”
The genius of speeding aid into to economy by changing governments is about what we should expect from a professor, a socialist and a separatist.
If the Conservatives are going to be voted down, it will likely be in a confidence motion in the Commons next Monday evening.
That would send Harper to see the Governor General the next day, asking her to dissolve Parliament and send the country to the polls again.
While the GG already has a letter from the coalition asking that it be given a chance to govern, Michaelle Jean’s decision will be constitutionally controversial, and could take days.
If the GG rules in favour of a coalition, she would insist that the three opposition parties test their deal with a confidence vote in the Commons.
That could take days, especially since the Conservatives will do everything possible to thwart it.
Now we are into the week before Christmas.
If the vote passes, as it would, the country may well not begin the process of changing governments until the New Year.
The transition from the Martin Liberal government to the Harper administration in 2006 took almost three weeks, and even then it was rushed.
The new coalition government would then have to decide on a new cabinet, and swear in 24 new ministers, including six from the New Democrats.
Until that moment, no one from the new coalition government will be allowed to see any confidential documents, much less the mountain of briefings needed to begin drafting a federal budget.
ZERO EXPERIENCE
All of the new NDP ministers and many of the Liberals appointed to cabinet would have zero experience running a government department, much less mastering their portfolios.
That usually takes months, even for junior portfolios.
The coalition would be lucky to have a budget worth anything before March.
Heck, by the time the coalition gets its act together and starts cutting cheques, it may well be time for Dion to make way for the new Liberal leader.
Let us pray that if the government falls next week, the Governor General will tell Curly, Larry and Moe to give their heads a slap.
