Category: ELECTION??

…or else STFU, already!

There are some days when I almost feel sorry for ol’ Stephanie Dion.

Okay, you caught me; I can’t say that with a straight face. The fact of the matter is that I never feel sorry for citoyen Dion, mainly because most of the crap he finds himself in is usually of his own creation. And, as of today, it’s really official: Dion is up to his ankles in shit, but he’s in head-first…

The minority Conservative government has turned up the heat, announcing it will introduce a motion by Friday on extending the mission, with a vote on the matter in late March.

The move appears designed to ensure one of two outcomes this spring: parliamentary approval to extend the mission indefinitely, or a federal election on the issue.

But Liberal Leader Stephen Dion isn’t budging on his position that the combat component of the mission must end on schedule next February, with Canadian troops remaining in Afghanistan to help with reconstruction and training of Afghan security forces.

He emerged from a caucus meeting Wednesday saying he’s not afraid of an election and it’s up to Prime Minister Stephen Harper to compromise.

“I’m never afraid of anything,” Dion said when asked if he’s prepared to trigger an election over the issue.

Well, pardon us all to hell Steffy, if none of us are impressed. We’ve heard all this before, you see: Dion huffs and puffs and threatens to blow Steve’s house down and then, when the crunch time rolls around, the HypoGrits in the House vote with their arses. Every time.

Dion said the Liberals will offer amendments to the government motion, to bring it in line with the Grit position.

I wouldn’t bet the farm on that, Steffy. In case you hadn’t noticed, this is one government (minority or not) that takes a pretty damned dim view of having legislation watered down to uselessness, and Afghanistan is something that HMPM Harper is dead serious about. The Tory ducks are pretty much in a row over this issue. Grits have been all over the map.

But this isn’t the only kick in the nuts that Dion’s lined up for, is it? Nope, it’s not…

The Tories are stepping up their fight to pass their omnibus crime bill.

Bill C-2, the Tackling Violent Crime Act, which consists of five bills dealing with violent crimes, dangerous offenders, and the age of sexual consent, passed the House of Commons in late November, just before a Christmas break that ended in late January. Now, the Conservatives say they may make the proposed act a confidence matter if the Liberal-controlled Senate doesn’t pass the bill this month.

“When it comes to protecting children, when it comes to mandatory jail terms for people who commit crimes with firearms, when it comes to labeling people as dangerous offenders … we have legislation that will accomplish that and the Senate appears to be holding it up,” Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day told CTV Newsnet’s Mike Duffy Live.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson told the Senate committee on legal affairs that it should pass the bill in February. If that doesn’t happen, he said he would tell Prime Minister Stephen Harper that the bill is a confidence measure and let him deal with it appropriately.

“We say to Liberal senators, and we say to (Liberal Leader) Stephane Dion, tell your Liberal colleagues to push this through,” said Day.

In other words: you’re not running the government anymore! So knock off this pissant screwing around, do the right thing, and get the damned legislation passed! If you don’t, we’ll damned well ram it up your sorry collective asses… and John Q. Canuck’ll help us do it.

So go ahead and get yourself a stiffy, Steffy. Give us an election. PLEASE. Either way, your bullshit stalling is running out of wiggle room.

Get really ready, because it’s starting to look like a political version of the perfect storm is brewing. And this particular front seems to be forming directly above the red chamber of Parliament.

Many interesting things, they have been a-happenin’ in far away Ottawa lately. The Smirkin’ gherkin showed that even a blind squirrel can find a nut at times by actually hopping on the bandwagon and taking a few swings at a drum that conservatives, both “big C” and “little C” have been banging away at for as long as I can remember: the time has come for the undemocratic Canadian Senate to face either reform or abolition:

OTTAWA – The Harper government will re-introduce legislation Tuesday aimed at reforming the Senate.

At the same time, the NDP plans to introduce a motion in the Commons calling for a referendum to abolish the upper chamber. The New Democrat motion would see the plebicite held at the same time as next federal election. Opposition motions – especially from the New Democrats – rarely hold any political strength in Ottawa.

But Prime Minister Stephen Harper has indicated he supports the referendum proposal – if only as a pathway to reforming the red chamber.

The Conservative measures being introduced Tuesday, which failed to pass in the last session of Parliament, would introduce provincial elections for Senate nominees, and shorten the terms of senators.

Harper has made it clear recently he wants the Senate changed one way or another.

He was recently quoted saying “if it can’t be reformed . . . it will have to be abolished.”

HMPM Harper has — as anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows — long been an advocate for reform for the upper chamber, which the Librano$ have used for years as their own personal failsafe against un-HypoGritical legislation becoming law in the event that John Q. Canuck should turf their sorry arses from government.

Basically, they get to sit back and say, “We lost the election? So what? We control the Senate, so anything we don’t like doesn’t get passed, and there’s not a damned thing the unwashed masses can do about it.” This is why the Librano$ always howl so loudly whenever someone brings up the subject of Senate reform: it threatens their stranglehold on political power. And if there’s one thing that Liberals actually do believe in, it’s “get power at all costs, keep power at all costs.” And to hell with the will of ignorant clods (AKA voters) like you and me. After all, it’s not like there’s any way to get rid of a shiftless Senator who’s loyalties are to the party and not to the people he or she is supposedly representing.

But the time for all that to change just might, finally, have arrived. I know that we’ve all been down this particular road before (one time too many, it seems sometimes) but this time things just might be different. And we might be in for an election sooner than we thought. Most folks assume that it’s no secret that HMPM Harper wants a majority government and this could be the perfect time to get one.

Now, before somebody accuses me of going off half-cocked about speculating on an election — or “premature electulation,” as it’s been called (you know who you are) — bear in mind that there are several reasons why I think this:

1. Harper has made no secret that he doesn’t like the crony-infested Senate and the way the Liebrals have used it to confound the will of the people for years. Opponents have accused him of wanting to fight an election on the backs of the Senate. That might not be such a bad idea…
   

   But, given the option of improving the existing Senate, a majority of Canadians (52 per cent) said they would favour reforms that would “make it, for instance, an elected body,” while 24 per cent said they would still prefer it be done away with completely. Only 16 per cent said they would want to keep the red chamber “as it is” today.

   The fact of the matter is that ordinary Canadians are getting sick and God damned tired of these high-falootin’ trufflesnufflers and are just about ready to say “our way or the highway.”

2. The fact that even the damned NDP are agreeing with the Tories on the need for the upper chamber to unf*ck itself should belie any claims of this being a “far-right agenda”-driven cause. There’s a lot of things you can call the NDP (trust me, I know; I’ve used most of ’em) but “right-of-centre” ain’t one of them.
3. Stephane Dion. ’nuff said.
4. The PM’s principled stands on so many issues are finally starting to make a serious impression on the Canadian public, with his personal popularity (which we were always told was the Tories’ biggest liability) on a rise that few other sitting PMs have experienced.

So where the hell do I think all this is going to lead? Here’s my prediction: It’s gonna hit the fan.

Something’s going on. I can feel it, deep down in the marrow of my bones. The signs and omens are everywhere.

I found an adder in the garden this morning. 😯 Last night at midnight, all my clocks stopped. 😯 Owls have been seen in daylight, dogs bay into the empty night and the Coach de Bauer was seen under a moonless sky, while the mournful wail of the bean sidhe echoes in the willows. 😯

Oh, what? You don’t believe me? Alright then, smartass, try this one on for size:

The Parliament of Canada website, whenever I’ve checked it before, has always contained a full schedule of the upcoming week’s agenda. Not so now. Monday has the usual slate of stuff that could make a meth-head yawn but Tuesday? Well, that’s interesting. Tuesday has one entry and one entry only [A tip o’ the toque to National Newswatch for this one, btw]:

PROJECTION FOR SUBSEQUENT DAYS
TUESDAY, APRIL 17, 2007

Private Members’ Business

C-377 — Mr. Layton (Toronto—Danforth) — Climate Change Accountability Act — Second reading (resuming debate)

That’s right, the only thing scheduled is the latest list of commandments from the High Priests of The Church of We’re All Gonna Die bag of climate-change claptrap from the loopy-Left, tinfoil-hat, moonbat, wish-they’d-all-go-splat Prophets of Envirodoomâ„¢. Yup, the “every time you exhale CO2, God kills a kitten” crowd are looking to leech of still more of your and my tax dollars to keep a bunch of otherwise unemployable envirotards in jobs. Never mind all the evidence that CO2 and human activity have less to do with global warming than, well… how about THE SUN?? But hey, we must all be wrong and they must be right because, c’mon… Al Gore made a movie. And we just know he’s smart, because he invented the internet. Dickheads.

Then there’s that little online poll over at canoe. Dr Roy diagnosed this last night but I wanted to wait a little longer, until there was a broader sampling, seeing as how there were fewer than 500 votes the first time I looked at it. Now while I could (and probably will, sometime) giggle and guffaw at considerable length about this, for now I’m just going to let you have a look at it and make up your own mind…

You have to admit, 54% can be one hell of an interesting number in the right circumstances. Put all this happy horseshit together and I don’t know about you, but I can definitely smell something in the wind…

Update already (damn; that didn’t take long): Matt has noticed something, too.

Updated update: Jason at True North has sounded off about how the Tories are leading the polls… in QUEBEC?? How the hell did that one happen? 😕

Totally updated update: Well, the HOC Projected Order of Business has beefed itself up now, killing my best omen dead in its tracks and putting me in the asshat column for a while…