Rabble.ca: Budget Bill C-9 masks Harper's hard right legislative goals

[tuvor]

Can the opposition parties, primarily the NDP and the Liberals, actually get their act together and save the country from more destruction by the Harper Conservatives? There is evidence that there is at least some talking behind the scenes about the formation of a coalition government. Widely reported remarks by Toronto Star columnist Chantal Hébert suggest that Jean Chrétien and Ed Broadbent are talking. Bob Rae blogged last week on the 25th anniversary of the Ontario NDP/Liberal coalition government he was part of and ridiculed the Conservatives fear-mongering about the renewed "coalition threat." Reports that members of the Liberal caucus are eager for such a move are also being strategically leaked to the media.

The formation of a coalition government in Britain, bringing together two parties at serious odds on many policies, has helped break what remains of the taboo manufactured by the Harper propaganda machine.

But secret, indirect talking is a painfully slow process when it seems so obvious to so many that a coalition is not just the only way to get rid of Harper but the only way to save the Liberal Party under Michael Ignatieff from further decline. Almost no one believes that Ignatieff has what it takes to win an election and the party has no obvious successor in the wings. But a coalition coming to power following the defeat of the Harper government would give the Liberals the time they desperately need. It is assumed that the NDP would support a coalition and Jack Layton has said as much.

The best and most legitimate opportunity for such a defeat is, unfortunately, rapidly disappearing. That opportunity is Bill C-9, the omnibus bill that Harper introduced to implement the budget passed by the House in March. It has come in for severe criticism not just from the opposition parties but from parliamentary experts and commentators.

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http://rabble.ca/news/2010/05/budget-bill-c-9-masks-harper%E2%80%99s-hard-right-legislative-goals