Canada’s Grits and Tories “Grin and Bear it”

While columnist Lawrence Martin approves of the face-saving deal between Government and Opposition, I am increasingly dismayed.

Previously, I noted how Mr. Ignatieff and Canada’s Liberal Party allowed a Conservative budget to pass merely out of self-preservation interest, despite the fact that such moves blur the differences between the parties.

Now, despite differences over Prime Minister Harper’s budget and the future of Canada’s Employment Insurance (EI) program, Mr. Ignatieff has refused to call a budget after Harper agreed to what amounted to a “blue-ribbon commission” on the EI program.

Tell me, what is the point of voting Liberal when you oppose the Conservatives if all the Liberals are doing is letting the Conservative government do what it wants, whenever it wants, merely because they are election-phobes? If I were Canadian, I’d be voting NDP or even Greens at this point, and I honestly don’t understand why any other center-left Canadian outside of professional Liberals hasn’t already reached that conclusion themselves.

At this point, if a Conservative government is going to operate like a majority party with the help of the Liberals, you might as well elect a true majority of Conservatives for one Parliament as you replace the Liberals with NDP and Green MPs. It’s not any worse than what they’re getting already.

Despite Liberal pleas in the last election to “stop a Conservative majority”, Canada has gotten one – with Liberal help.