Greg at the Sinister Thoughts blog documents a jaw-dropping spurious attempt by Belinda Stronach to smear the NDP. In Question Period yesterday, she tried to argue that the party is somehow willing to compromise its principles on the rights of same-sex couples — because New Democrats voted with the government on an utterly unrelated issue.
Greg fires back:
Obviously, no has told her that the NDP is the only party that has same sex marriage as a party policy and will continue to support the rights of all Canadians, either straight or gay, to marry. If Belinda wants to know who the real threats to same sex marriage are, she should turn around. They are sitting behind her on the Liberal benches.
It was just one moment in a bizarre Question Period where the Grits used every question to take a backhanded swipe at the NDP instead of tackling the government (which, at least in theory, is the purpose of the Most Exciting Hour in Canadian Politics). It’s hard to avoid the impression this is still a party that feels entitled to run the country, and lashes out with incohate rage whenever they remember they don’t any more.
But what I’d like to know from Ms. Stronach is this: if voting with the Conservatives in support of tougher accountability rules that you actually agree with is such a betrayal of principles…
…then how much worse is it when you vote with the Conservatives to keep an environment minister you say you oppose in office?
And just how cynical do you have to be for your environment critic to acknowledge publicly that you’re keeping her in that job because you think she’s screwing up?
“We would rather leave Ms. Ambrose in place because she represents the total incompetence of the government,” said [Liberal environment critic John] Godfrey. “We would rather let that fruit ripen, if I may put it that way.”
It’s true that, had Canadians only applied the same standard, the Liberals would still be in power today. But turning incompetence into a job qualification? That’s not a platform I’d want to take to the voters when the next election rolls around.
I think some internal polling numbers woke up the libs. Not a scratch on Harper so better go after Layton. But seriously, the Liberals are a shining example of the political wisdom that flows from the realization that it is only when you express, illustrate or allude to principles that you open yourself to the accusation of having comprimised them somehow.
It’s good that people realize that the NDP has same-sex marriage as a party standard: that way they will know just why the Cons only sleep with the NDP on the side, when they think no one will notice. Sooner or later the NDP will wake up with that icky feeling that they have been used, abused, ridden hard and put up wet. It’ll be too late then.
The Liberals gave some of the stuff back to the NDP, showed them up as the unprincipled rubes they are.
If for one minute an NDP’er thinks a Conservative has their back on any issue, they must be some of the “naive” Canadians Harper referred to.
The NDP and their playing around with the voters like Harper did with Emerson and Fortier lost them my vote (which means little in my decidedly NDP riding so the loss of my vote will not even be a blip but still…), and I will be showing and telling any people I meet just why a vote for the NDP is a vote for Harper.
It’s a sad state of affairs, people. Very sad. Canadians can count on one party to lead us on our true path as a country in a world determined to make might right: the Liberals can and will make Canada a force again, not in warmongering and fearfulness but in peacekeeping and diplomacy. The NDP and the Conservatives are parties which need each other to survive. The Liberals stand on their own and will represent the true north strong and free.
If all you have against the Liberals is that they left an incompetent environment minister of government in place, well just wait and see what happens when it becomes apparent that they left a PM in office just long enough to hang himself.
Locusta, exactly what about voting for legislative change that the NDP supports, that the NDP campaigned on, is “playing around with voters”?
You say at one point that a vote for the NDP is a vote for Harper… and then two paragraphs later, that the Liberals deliberately voted to leave Harper in office. You say the Liberals are a party of peacekeeping and diplomacy, yet Martin vacillated for months over whether to support the invasion of Iraq — and the Liberals ridiculed the NDP’s criticism of the U.S. missile defense scheme until they finally decided to oppose it themselves.
For a supposed former NDP voter, you’ve managed to adopt Liberal doublethink in impressively quick measure.
If all you have against the Liberals is that they left an incompetent environment minister of government in place, well just wait and see what happens when it becomes apparent that they left a PM in office just long enough to hang himself.
Can we safely assume that the latter reference is to Paul Martin?
Nice one. There ought to be a Leacock Medal for blog commenting.