Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Why didn’t the Liberals help the NDP get rid of Bernier weeks ago?

Astonishing to see Liberals bleating today over the long-awaited departure of foreign affairs minister Maxime Bernier – when those very same Liberals helped Harper keep the Bungler from Beauce in cabinet that much longer.

Why it was over two weeks ago that the NDP’s Paul Dewar put precisely that motion in front of the House of Commons foreign affairs committee.

But while Liberals were happy to complain about Bernier, incredibly, they couldn't be counted on to vote for the NDP motion to actually get rid of him.

Ask Today’s Bob Rae to explain why he helped Harper keep Bernier on the world stage:

Hon. Bob Rae: Mr. Chair, I'm going to indicate to you my opposition to Mr. Dewar's motion, and I'll tell you why. I'm not interested in seeing this committee get paralyzed by a procedural matter. We know very well that we could use our majority in the committee to vote non-confidence in the minister. We also know what the impact of that would be on the business of the committee and the business of the House. I'm not interested in doing that.

While the NDP were packing Bernier’s bags, the Liberals were freshening his bed clothes. "Because without you, Maxime, we are nothing!"

Just more limp gamesmanship from Her Majesty’s Artificial Opposition.

6 comments:

leftdog said...

Absolutely on target with this analysis! The Libs have consistently breathed life into the Harper crew! No wonder he is so cocky and arrogant! With Liberals ensuring that he is safe from a non-confidence loss, hell ... he's laughing!!

Blogging Horse said...

Thanks 'dog.

The Libs could have helped the NDP get rid of Bernier, but decided to help Harper instead.

The Libs could have helped the NDP get rid of the whole bunch (there's been several non-confidence votes), but decided to help Harper instead.

Why, becasue the Libs need Harper alive and screwing up in the hope that eventually they will eclipse their years of vacant ethics and broken promises.

Steve V said...

Given what has happened in other committee's, including those that have an opposition majority, why are Rae's word gamesmanship? "Paralyzed" is completely rational, you seem to forget the playbook, Rae was more interested in getting Bernier there to answer, than going off track, wherein the Cons do what they did at Justice.

On top of that, look, everyone knows there will be no election coming out of this session, so taken to its final conclusion, you aren't going to get the Libs to move to a non-confidence. The decision has already been made, rightly or wrongly, and the bottomline, everyone, including the government, are just playing out this legislative session until the summer break.

I bitched and moaned about abstaining, but it's a mute point now, or at the least, you are just flogging a dead horse ;)

The Mound of Sound said...

Why did you dippers put Harper in power anyway? Answer that one first before you worry about what Liberals are doing. It's no wonder the dipwads can't climb out of the cellar with Layton at the controls.

Blogging Horse said...

What's that you say Mound? You say the "dippers put Harper in power". Peculiar. Pretty sure that's not how the election went.

Other people seem to remember it differently too:

“[The Conservatives won] because Canadians believed they had to take power from the Liberals.” – Bob Rae, Kitchener Record, June 21, 2006

Yeah, the rest of us remember it that way too, Bob.

Malcolm+ said...

The Liberatives really need to get a grip on the fact that their Big Lie campaign isn't working.

Harper was elected because Canadians wanted your sorry kleptocracy defeated. Deal with it.

Of course, if you Liberatives really disagreed with the Harper agenda, you could, I don't know, defeat him in the House.

But then, you're just another right wing party, so the Harper agenda is just fine with you. Despite all the posturing, you keep voting confidence in the Harper government because you really do support the Harper agenda.