So CTV News today was presenting a story about a protectionist “Buy American” bill that the US Congress has suddenly passed. And some MP (not sure the party) suggested that Canada should pass its own “Buy Canada”, to which I found myself replying, “Protectionism doesn’t really help stimulate the economy” only to find Stockwell Day, on TV, saying virtually the same thing, at the same time.
Dah!
Anyway. I can’t seem to bring myself into a lather over this budget and the projected deficit. It does seem a rather large deficit, but then again, there is an awful lot of opinion out there that stimulus is needed and deficits must be tolerated. Those opinions could be wrong, but I sure don’t have the knowledge to dispute it.
But greatly amused this morning when maverick CBC economics reporter Michael Helinka (not in favor of deficit spending, by the way) expressed pure amazement that host Matt Galloway actually believed that Conservative governments try to avoid deficits. “That is simply not true. Republicans, Conservatives—they do not balance budgets. Liberals and Democrats do. Conservative governments have that reputation, but it’s simply not borne out by the facts.”
Yes, I know, I’ve said it before, but it’s hard to let go of: Stimulus package or no, we would have been in deficit anyway, because the Conservatives frittered away the surplus with stupidly timed tax cuts and silly one-time expenditures. That’s what Conservatives do.
So I don’t know what it means that I agreed with Stockwell Day.
And, I suppose it doesn’t speak well of me that I also agree with faux Michael Ignatieff in this clip from 22 Minutes. But why don’t Canadians spend some time educating themselves about how the Parliamentary system in this country works? (Not to mention which parties are best at managing economies.) That way Conservatives could stop so easily manipulating their ignorance.
Some years ago, DH and I started cooking a gourmet dinner on New Year’s Eve—yes, just for the two of us. (Everyone seems to find that odd, but believe me, when your friends all start having babies… You start doing a lot of things just the two of you!)
Last year, that dinner didn’t quite land on New Year’s Eve itself, and this year it was even later. DH had call duty over New Year’s weekend, so we picked the weekend after for our dinner. That way, there could be wine.
First course: Mushroom and cappuccino velouté
Source: The ever-cheery sounding Cooking with Foods That Fight Cancer
Wine: Stoneleigh 2006 Pinot Noir (New Zealand)
Certainly the healthiest item of the meal, the soup was also very easy to make: Sauté mushrooms, garlic, and shallots in olive oil, add good-quality chicken stock and let simmer, add fresh basil and blend, season with sesame, then froth milk and put on top. We don’t have a proper “milk frother”, though, so that wasn’t as foamy as it might have been.
But since shitake mushrooms are delicious, the soup was delicious. The wine was also very nice, living up to its reputation as a really good Pinot Noir for less than $20 a bottle. Fruity but subtle, complementing the earthiness of the mushrooms nicely.
Second course: Squash Ravioli with Sage Butter Sauce
Source: LCBO—Squash ravioli, Sage butter sauce
Wine: Chateau des Charmes St. David’s Bench Chardonnay (Ontario)
I’d been wanting to try making ravioli for a while, and had these two LCBO recipes on hand. What we made was a bit of a combination of both.
I had my doubts when the roasted squash ended up a bit overcooked, with burnt edges; was the whole thing going to end up tasting charcoal-y? Plus, one squash didn’t seem to provide quite enough material, so we supplemented with can pumpkin.
Actually stuffing the things, which I had been dreading, was actually much easier than expected. And amazingly (to me), almost none came apart in cooking, and the won ton wrappers, which seemed so doughy when raw, turned very light after cooking.
The butter sauce was also cause for some concern enroute. (And can I say, that was a shocking amount of butter! Not how I usually cook!) It was supposed to get light brown; it kind of went beyond that, to a darker colour. Was it going to taste all charcoal-y?
But everything was delicious. No charcoal accents at all. And the detail of crisping the sage leaves in olive oil added a really cool texture to the whole thing.
The wine, recommended by LCBO, did match the food very nicely. It took on a completely different, fuller character, compared with drinking it alone.
Main course: Macademia-Crusted Lamb with Celery Root-Fennel Mash and Coconut Mango Chutney
Source: LCBO again, their Holiday 2004 issue.
Wine: Clos des Brusquières 2003 Chateauneuf du Pape (France)
This recipe was a last-minute substitution when we weren’t able to get our hands on sushi-grade tuna. The idea was accompanying honey-encrusted French-cut lamb chops with a fairly subtle-flavored mash and a very strongly flavored chutney.
None of this was hard to make, but it did take a while. DH handled the mash, which involved a couple of vegetables we don’t cook with very often: the ugly celery root and a fennel bulb (with some other flavorings, like garlic and sea salt). The result was very pleasant-tasting.
The chutney was all strong flavors: sugar, vinegar, chili, ginger, mango, cinnamon, coconut, mint, raisins, lime. It seemed like such a hodge-podge, and the color ended up so odd (brownish), that I was actually surprised how good it tasted!
The main event lamb, by comparison, was a master of simplicity. And it all worked together with the wine, which was very nice, as those tend to be. (And yes, we were feeling a little tipsy at this point, though by no means getting close to finishing any of the bottles!)
Dessert: Pumpkin-Wild Blueberry Pie
Source: Michael Stadtlander’s The Heaven on Earth Project
Wine: Cave Spring’s 2006 Late Harvest Riesling (Ontario)
Michael Stadtlander is considered one of the best chefs in the world. He runs a restaurant out of his own home. It’s extremely difficult to get reservations there now, but many years, we were able to. (We just had to book four months in advance. Seriously.) And it was, indeed, a sublime experience.
We bought his book a few months ago and—guess what?—a lot of the recipes are really hard to make. But this pie was approachable, and this seemed a good time to try it.
I didn’t compromise on it too much. I used can pumpkin instead of cooking my own, and the blueberry glaze seemed to require the sacrifice of too many delicious wild blueberries for too little input on the pie. But I did follow pastry recipe, and was pleased how easy it was to mix. Rolling got a bit sticky (the crust had sugar and vanilla in it), but adding flour made that work. No amounts were given for the various spices in the pumpkin pie, so I just threw in what seemed like a reasonable amount of each.
So if not entire Statlander-esque in the end, it still turned out very good. Pumpkin and wild blueberry (frozen after we bought them up North this summer) is a good combination. And the Riesling had about the right amount of sweetness to match.
Pie was even better the next day when it had had a chance to chill longer.
With dispersed families, Christmas celebrations get dispersed over various events, not all of which occur on December 25.
DH and I traditionally hold “our” Christmas on the weekend before we go north. We exchange whatever gifts we’ve bought for each other, and have a Christmas dinner.
This year was no exception. For the dinner, I decided to follow an entire menu provided in the Nutrition Action Newsletter. The biggest challenge, apart from it just being a lot of dishes (turkey breast, stuffing, wild rice salad, green beans, sweet potato casserole, cranberry sauce, pumpkin dip, cranberry apple pear crisp), was that a lot of the recipes were for 8-10 people—way too much for two. So not only was I making a lot of different dishes, but I was having to do arithmetic (divide in two) on all the ingredients as well.
But everything turned out. Although all “healthy”, nothing was lacking in flavor. The cranberry sauce was nicely punched up with ginger, the sweet potato topped with walnuts and coconut. And I liked that the stuffing was much less greasy and salty than stuffing usually is.
For gifts, we went small, since we’re looking at yet another trip soon. With the help of very specific hinting, I got very cute pyjamas on a musical theme (“Here comes treble!”), but was also surprised with some new kitchen gizmos. The gift I was most excited for DH to open was a bottle of Stratus White that I’d spotted at an LCBO, despite its being completely sold out at the winery itself. Tasting notes:
The 05 Stratus White invites the awesome comment. Cliché but true. Feels like Chardonnay Musqué on steroids—delightfully excessive. A wine to propose with, or serve with foie gras, perhaps to mark an anniversary celebration.
The next event was up north, on the eve of the 24th, which is when French Canadians celebrate Christmas with a Réveillon. Food features prominently here, with little appetizer thingies like bacon-wrapped water chestnuts, sweet and sour meatballs, devilled eggs, smoked salmon canapes, shrimp, sucre à crème, and so on.
The gift exchange is more on the jokey side. Everyone gets a $10 gift on a theme, this year’s being “Cowboy”. Then we sit and play a “left / right” passing game until you end up with whatever gift in the end. I threw a Cowboy Junkies CD into the pot.
On the third day of Christmas, it was finally December 25. But Christmas morning was pretty quiet, just DH, me, and my parents, as one sister was staying in Toronto, another not due up until Boxing Day, and the brother’s family only stopping by later that day. So we did a leisurely breakfast, then each of us opened our stocking things, and DH and Dad exchanged gifts, since they had each other’s names.
DH and I split up for Christmas dinner, each joining our respective parents’ for the traditional turkey feast. I did get to see my brother’s family at this point, which is always fun, along with some aunts and uncles.
So Boxing Day was another event, as finally all the kids (my brother’s and my sister’s) could get together. The reunion occurred later than originally expected, due to a stomach bug that struck my brother and his wife (though not the kids). It was crazy-ness when they were finally all together, tearing through their remaining presents.
I also opened my gifts from my brother-in-law, who had my name. Got a very nice-looking exercise top (that I probably won’t limit to workout wear—it’s pretty cute), the Who’s Amazing Story DVD that I’ve been thoroughly enjoying the past couple days, a nice pair of earrings and necklace from the One of a Kind show (and thinking my sister may have helped with the shopping here), and a Paul Anka Rock Swings CD.
Yes, Rock Swings—Paul Anka doing songs like Jump, Smells Like Teen Spirit, and Black Hole Sun in his style. This was purchased in all seriousness, since I’ve been known to enjoy oddities such as dance-mix and orchestral versions of Queen songs. But this CD is something else. We played it one night and, well, you almost have to hear it to believe it. It was quite the conversation piece for us.
In writing up my Italy trip, I described the “travel part of travel” as the most boring part. Well, for Christmas 2008, the travel part of travel was the big story, front and centre. And we were not immune from the fun.
We were flying North late this year—December 24, in the afternoon. Mere days after myriad flight cancellations due to massive snowstorms from coast to coast. Considering all that, we did pretty well. Yes, our flight was somewhat delayed, but that was mostly due to the airline needing to catch up first with earlier, very much delayed flights. And though we didn’t know it at first, we were actually at risk of having our flight cancelled, not so much because of weather (just rainy on this day), but because the crew were getting precariously close to their maximum work hours for that day. But boarding was extremely efficient, and they closed the doors five minutes before they would have had to call it a day and we would have been stuck in Toronto.
In the end, we arrived only about an hour later than expected.
Our flight out was scheduled for the afternoon of Sunday, December 28, as we were both due back at work on Monday. Checking the weather forecast didn’t suggest we’d have any problems. Even that morning, the prediction was for just small snowfall in the afternoon—about 5 cm, no biggie for a northern community.
And then… a couple hours before we were due to flight out… Mother Nature got riled. Winds picked up. Snow flew and blew in copious amounts. Roads grew icy, visibility almost nil.
We were actually scheduled for a family brunch right before the airport drive, so we’d set up for Air Canada to text message our cell phone if the flight was delayed. The first message came through announcing a one-hour delay. No surprise there. And the storm was scheduled to end later that day.
But then the second message arrived. “Flight cancelled”. Huh.
Surprisingly, perhaps, we’d never actually had a flight cancelled before, and weren’t entirely sure what to do. It was a bit of a distracted brunch until we could get back to the house and figure that out.
There seemed to be no way to rebook anything online. We had to call Air Canada. But Timmins wasn’t the only affected site this day, so it was a long time on hold with them.
Meantime, we looked at alternatives. There was a bus leaving around 8:00 that night, which would get us to Toronto about 12 hours later. Uggh. And, there was a flight out of North Bay that night, for only $200. But how to get to North Bay?
Finally, we reached Air Canada. They could not rebook us before Tuesday, essentially ensuring we’d miss two days of work. This was not a good situation for DH, whose small office was already understaffed at this time, and whose clients have an ongoing need to breathe. So we decided to go with getting our flight refunded, and finding another way back.
We called the bus line about that night’s bus. Turns out that was unlikely to leave as well; both major highways leading out of Timmins were closed. So that meant car rental was also out. There was just no getting to work for Monday.
We continued research. I recalled that it was actually possible to take the train out of Timmins; that left the next morning at 7:45, and definitely looked like the most appealing option. A long day, still, but train travel is better than bus.
The next day dawned clear and all looked well. From the “train” station, they actually bus us first to Matheson, about an hour away, the closest town that still has rail lines. We got there on time, but were told the train was about 15 minutes late. But 15 minutes came and went and… no train.
The bus driver called us over. “So, this is what has happened. The train has broken down in Val Gagné. So get back on the bus, and we’ll figure out how to get you to Toronto.”
We were soon joined by a busload of people from Val Gagné. The bus we were on didn’t fit everyone, so they had to get a bigger one. They also had to figure out how to pick up every one in the stops between Matheson and North Bay, from where a train would be available.
In the end, we got an “express” bus ride to North Bay, while a separate bus handled the “milk run” of stops in between. And, it wasn’t so bad, since the most annoying part of bus travel is all those stops on the way.
We were in North Bay on time, but the train was not. We had about an hour’s wait there. Then everyone on that train had to get off and find their way onto various buses for the trip to points north. Then we got on, and the train turned around and went back to Toronto.
From here in, there were no further delays. We got to Toronto around 8:45, into a taxi to bring us to the airport parking where our car was, then a drive home that went well.
And we were both able to work on Tuesday. Happy new year to all!
The snow had ended but the roads were still dicey as we headed out to the KW Symphony’s Yuletide Spectacular, so it was nice to see a fairly solid crowd was still in attendance. As was the news that the Grand Philharmonic Choir would live to sing another day after all.
This was a symphony concert rather light on the symphonic side of things, as they were joined by many guest performers of all types. The highlight of the first half was something I’d never seen or even heard of before, the Synergy Bell Choir. It’s just the coolest thing to see these young people (11 to 20) manipulate these bells—I wish they were on YouTube. But it sounds lovely too; we even bought their CD at intermission.
The Grand Philharmonic Choir did a very nice Gloria chorus in the first half, but my very favourite was the “Musicological Journey Through the 12 Days of Christmas”. Each day of this famously long carol is a sung in a different musical style, from Gregorian Chant to American Jazz, passing through Back, Beethoven, Mozart, Strauss, Stravinsky, Williams (John), and so on. Very cool! I searched iTunes for a version afterwards, but found I can get it only if I purchase the entire album by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Choir (I kid you not). Still pondering that one.
The Grand Philharmonic Children’s Choir was just deadly cute on their two numbers, “Veni, Veni, Emmanuel” and “Somewhere in my Memory” (from Home Alone). And sounded very sweet. And there were some solo singers as well, including identical twins Mercedes and Phoenix Ann-Horn (and yes, it was feeling a bit PBS-special at times, but delightful nonetheless).
Unfortunately, we frankly sitting too close to really appreciate the work of Carousel Dance, who danced a couple big numbers from The Nutcracker Suite, along with a more modern piece to Stille Nacht. It was hard not to just focus on one nearby dancer instead of trying to take in and appreciate the whole group dance effect.
And then there was the singing along, which we got to do to the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah (good thing they handed out lyric sheets, because it turns out the only lyric I knew was “Hallelujah”), “Hark the Herald Angels Sing”, and “O Come, All Ye Faithful”.
“Laughter may be the best medicine, but singing is good for the soul,” said conductor Brian Jackson. Indeed!
The whole gang—soloists, adult and child choir, bell choir, dancers, and—oh yeah—the KW Symphony—got together for the final sing-a-long number, the “Be careful what you wish for” per Mr. Jackson, “White Christmas”. And we even got candy canes at the end.
We woke this morning to Jack Frost nipping at our nose, which is never good when you’re not sleeping in a tent (and not even so great when you are).
Turns out that yesterday’s whipping and blowing snow whipped and blew its way up our furnace input valve. The furnace detected trouble and shut itself off. Since the storm had also brought about rather cold temperatures (-16C), we were eager to have the problem dealt with.
The first call elicited the advice of turning off the furnace, trying to clear the valves ourselves, turning the furnace back on, and seeing if it resolved itself.
Five hours later, it appeared that wasn’t working. Though we were coping with the help of a gas fireplace and a couple space heaters, it was still a bit nippy. And more snow is forecast.
So with another call, the technician came out (at weekend rates) and found that one of the sensors had been damaged by the snow. He replaced that and voilà. Part is under warrantee, so it’s just the labour, and it wasn’t a huge job.
Makes you appreciate the wonder of central heating, though. Yes, indeed.
Someone asked if I was if I was OK with Michel Ignatieff being “installed” as Liberal leader. And I have to say, yes, I’m just fine with it, thanks. I don’t have that much fondness for the guy—took a real dislike to him during the last Liberal leadership convention—but whatever.
At least the Liberals did what I suggested by rapidly dismissing M. Dion and accelerating their leadership process. By contrast, the Conservatives never listen to my advice. So big props for that.
And frankly, now, or in May, what’s the difference? He was going to be the next leader anyway. I like Bob Rae better, but the man has serious baggage from leading Ontario during a recession. I can just imagine the Conservative attack ads on that theme.
With limited options and time, the Liberals took the best available course. Just hope this coronation works out better for them than the Turner / Martin ones.
Shark jumpin’
So, I’m OK with Iggy, but I’m not the least bit OK with Izzie. Stevens. Grey’s Anatomy?
Even if you don’t watch the show, you may have heard about its recent, most gallactically stupid plot line ever, wherein Izzie first has visions of (that was OK), then starts having sex with, her dead fiancee! No! Not OK! This isn’t Buffy! Dead is dead in this series.
Then I realized I never really liked Izzie anyway (apparently she was a great character in season 1, but since I’ve been watching this series, she’s been awful), so I could just fast-forward all of her scenes, then just enjoy the rest of the show.
That worked OK for one episode, but then I ran into problem 2: Melissa George. Introduced about the same time as the dead fiancee, she plays this super-annoying old friend of Meredith’s, now an intern at Seattle Grace. Fast-forwarding her as well proved a lot trickier, especially since she started flirting with Callie, whom I really like.
But wait… Why is Callie flirting with another girl? After doing a pretty good job of contrasting Hahn, who was just realizing she was a lesbian, and Callie, who wasn’t—but was just really taken with Hahn, this turn of events is nonsensical. (Melissa George, you are no Jessica Hahn.)
So Izzie, Melissa, Callie, and Alex (too many scenes with Izzie) are out, and now I’m little troubled about this strange new relationship between McSteamy and “little Grey”. Much more of this stuff, and there won’t be anything left worth fast-forwarding to.
Dance redux
As for more worthy television….
One more thing I liked more on the Canadian dance series: Each of the four finalist got a profile and moment in the spotlight before the results were announced. Despite the really excessive blah blah that resulted, it was much better than what happens to the runner-up on the US series—they are unceremoniously shunted aside while the winner is showered with confetti. Always makes me feel bad for them.
(And congratulations, Nico. A deserving winner.)
Steve and the Senate
As for our less deserving “winner”, Mr. Harper…
I can’t seem to bring myself to get that outraged about the new Conservative Senate appointments. P-M’s are allowed to appoint Senators. So he previously said he’d rather reform the House than appoint them. Small potatoes, really. I’m much more concerned about them stalling on Climate Change talks and underestimating the degree to which Canada is at risk from sub-prime mortgages.
I will say it is unfortunate the P-M is still busying himself with political games instead of dealing with real problems like those. But it’s unfortunately not surprising.
Also not surprising
D’oh Canada! Survey reveals Canadians barely understand their political system [This was a valid link at the time…]
I could make this one semi-political as well. Point out the comparisons… Four contenders, only one can win. Yet they realize that supporting the whole team only makes them stronger. They do not delight when a rival messes up. Despite their talent, they are humble and willing to admit they have much to learn. All under 30, yet all very mature, very charismatic, extremely talented. Deserving contenders, all.
So You Think You Can Dance Canada. Your unlikely source for inspiring voting options.
Nico Archambault, my predicted winner of So You Think You Can Dance Canada
But I’ll drop it now. For one, I’ve made this comparison before, and for another, it’s frankly tainting the program to compare it with the mess in Ottawa. So let’s just talk about it on its terms.
There are ways in which the American original is superior to this homegrown version. The host, for one—no one can match Cat Deeley’s easygoing charisma; she may be the best of host of any reality show, period. I also miss the little video recaps the US show inserts into judge’s comments when appropriate—they describe a jeté, we see said jeté. And the Canadian show has four judges instead of three. That becomes a lot of blah blah going on.
But, in more important ways, I’ve found the Canadian show to be superior.
Multi-cultural range of dance styles
The ubiquitous hip hop and contemporary are always here too, but there have also been so many other styles. Afro-jazz. House. Brazilian something or other that the two guys did in the last show. It’s really multi-cultural. And where the US show was praising itself to the skies for including one Bollywood number, these ones are inserted quite matter of factly, and regularly.
Less homophobia
I’m not just imagining that, am I? Certainly Nico gets praised for his masculine style of dance, but there just seemed to be less “You have to be man!” lecturing going on. And Tre advising that one dancer imagine his partner as a man, if that’s what it took? Cool.
Audition episodes
Unlike the US shows, which featured a bunch of “heart-warming” profiles of individuals (many of whom never made it very far), the Canadian shows featured primarily dancing. So much better! There is a lot of dance talent in this country. Which brings me to….
Better dancers
When American judge Dan Karaty commented that he worked with So You Think Can Dance all around the world, and that the Canadian program was “second to none”, I could believe it. Because really, it’s an amazing group of dancers.
Take the solos. On the US show, last season’s solos, by pretty much all contenders, were largely boring. They seemed short and pointless. The Canadians have no more time, but do so much more with it. Natalie picks a completely different style every time. Allie sticks with ballet, but does it to a wide variety of music. Early contender Dario did some of the most amazing, original dances I’ve ever seen.
And look at Miles, the “B-boy” who’s managed to make it to the top four. Probably, on technical skill, Sebastien should be the one there… But this guy has acquitted himself extremely well. To my mind, much better than Twitch, whose presence in the US top four kind of made me twitch, and Dominic the year before, much as I was pulling for him. Miles deserves his spot.
(And on a completely shallow note, holy jeez, what a good-looking bunch.)
So there you have it. If you haven’t watched yet, it’s not too late to start. Finale is tonight at 9:00, and they will be redoing all the best of the season. And if that whets your appetite, on New Year’s Day, be a couch potato and watch the So You Think You Can Dance Canada marathon. All on CTV.
Well, it’s disappointing. Truly, the GG’s precedents for this were thin on the ground, so this decision was as valid as the other, but it’s still disappointing. It amounts to a reprieve for the Conservatives. Now they can wander off and cobble together a budget that takes all the best ideas from the coalition and present it and have the other parties look silly for voting against it.
Of course, it’s good if this actually reins the Conservatives in. But it’s unfortunate that it means we’ll likely continue to have a Prime Minister whose character is so clearly deficient, so far from what the country needs at this time.
And also, can we afford to have no federal action for two full months? Not exactly the best time for them to be off on vacation on our dime.
What’s been good
Well, it’s certainly engaging many Canadians in a way I’ve rarely seen before. Thousands of comments on news articles, pages full of letters to the editor… There’s very far from being a consensus of opinion on this. And more thoughtful commentary than I would have expected.
Opinions I have little patience with
“It’s a coup, it’s undemocratic, it’s a power grab, we didn’t vote for a coalition…”
Realizing my impatience with it will not make this opinion go away (especially with the Conservatives running ads on this theme), we elected a Parliament. The way we always do. We do not elect Prime Ministers. The elected members of Parliament can organize themselves in whatever combination they wish to form effective government. Coalitions, while rare in Canada, are perfect valid and completely in line with our democratic system.
“We need to have another election first.”
I actually can’t believe some people are of this opinion. Shall we just convert every vote in the House to an election then? For heaven’s sake! We just had a freakin’ election. We can’t afford the time, expense, and sheer aggravation only to likely end up with pretty much the same thing.
These are the people we elected. Let them find a way to govern for a little while, one way or another.
Opinions I’m more sympathetic toward
“I don’t want Dion as Prime Minister”
Yeah. Much as we don’t literally vote for Prime Ministers, I still think Canadians clearly expressed that they didn’t want Mr. Dion to be P-M. Hence his resignation from the leadership post the next day. Realizing they didn’t have a lot of time, I still wish the Liberals had gone with another interim leader for this coalition. (I wish Mr. Dion had recognized that could be in the best interest of the country as well.)
And regardless of what happens next, the Liberals seriously need to think about electing a new leader sooner than May. That’s too far away. Frankly—and even though I don’t particularly like Ignatief—I still think any of the three Liberal contenders would be a better bet than anything else on offer from the other parties (Duceppe’s separatism and May’s lack of a seat in the House rather hobbling these otherwise decent options).
And speaking of Duceppe…
“I don’t like that the coalition includes separatists”
The Bloc are annoying fact of Parliamentary life, but the math says the only way to bring the Conservatives down is to get Bloc support. And if it weren’t for the Bloc, the Conservatives would have their majority, and the other parties would have lost their financial capacity to fight them in future elections.
So while sympathetic with that point, me, I can live with them being involved. (Just like Stephen Harper could back when he was in opposition.) They wouldn’t actually sit in government; they’d just agree not to bring it down for 18 months. Seems an acceptable compromise.
What not to lose sight of
This crisis is Stephen Harper’s doing. Period. He has not taken responsibility for that, and he has not shown one iota of remorse for it.
Now that the Conservatives have blinked, it’s more complicated.
They’ve dropped the funding cut to political parties. And also the ban on the right to strike. And, they pledge to bring forward a budget, with stimulus package, earlier, in January.
And yet the coalition agreement was signed, with Dion as Prime Minister, members of the NDP in cabinet, and the Bloc agreeing to support it for at least a year.
Politically, I don’t know how wise this is. The unpopular leader, the deal with separatists, leaving the party with the single most seats out in the cold—it’s just going to make a lot of people really angry.
On the other hand… It really is cooperation, isn’t it? And isn’t that exactly what a lot of people say they want? Three parties agreeing to work together for the good of Canada. Of course, their motives are nowhere near pure. But, it’s still a little refreshing.
And, I kind of like some the policy statements I’ve heard from the coalition side so far. Dropping the NDP demand to cancel corporate tax cuts (thank goodness). A stimulus package sooner. A blue chip economic advisory committee. Possibly restoring arts funding. Elizabeth May, Senator.
On the other hand (I clearly need more hands), it’s really hard to have great confidence in this group. The Liberals are still in a fair amount of disarray, and the NDP campaigned on a completely unrealistic platform. One hopes the NDP would learn from actually governing, but Canada isn’t in the best position right now for them to practice on. And Dion, despite some definite virtues, has not exactly shown himself to be a great leader.
I guess there isn’t any way for us to get Barack Obama as leader without actually joining the US? No? Well, OK then…
In this article I just found [link no longer valid!], Andrew Steele lays out Harper’s options.
Preemptively Remove Michaëlle Jean. To which I say, wow, he can do that? I don’t like that one. It’s not right. And I like Ms. Jean.
Reschedule the Vote again. How long a delay would be long enough? Eventually, someone has to govern…
Appoint Opposition MPs to the Senate. This option is too boring to even contemplate.
Caretaker Prime Minister. This apparently means admitting defeat, to some extent, and seeking to find a coalition partner. He would just be a “caretaker” Prime Minister in the meantime, with more limited powers. Interesting. Would he actually do this?
Prorogue i.e. Cancel this session of Parliament and start again. This is the one he wants, but which admittedly limited precedent suggests the G-G shouldn’t grant.
Apologize, fire Flaherty, and reach across the aisle. Is it a big enough gesture? And would he do this?
Request an election. No! Not another damn election! No!
Convince Opposition MPs to support the government. They’d need 12 turncoats.
Seduce the Bloc into supporting the government. They’re already running anti-Bloc, so doubtful this is still a viable option.
Step down as Conservative leader. Which is also what the Globe Editorial today recommends, and would, I think be a big enough gesture to appease the opposition (at least the Liberal party). But would he do that?
“May you live in interesting times.” Really is a curse, eh?
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