Harper gets his chutzpah on
Harper said he doesn't want an election before 2009. But the prime minister added that he would consider any votes during the upcoming parliamentary session on items in the speech from the throne as confidence motions.
"If they get approval of the throne speech, we're going to expect those things to be passed," Harper said.
This is a totally empty threat, as Harper can't rewrite how Parliament works to go along with his wishes. The arrogance of this remark would piss me off even if I agreed with everything he puts into the throne speech. And that's actually possible, as the throne speech in the parliamentary version of campaign promises; long on vision and short on details.
As an example, I expect they will say nice things about defending Canada's Arctic Sovereignty, which I obviously support. I also have significant disagreements with what the Conservatives are actually doing about it. And what Harper says doesn't always mean what it means.
In June, Harper said he wanted to find a consensus among all parties about what Canada should do when the February 2009 mission deadline in Afghanistan expires.
On Wednesday, Harper said consensus was perhaps the wrong word but that he does need some agreement.
"We have to have the support of some members of the opposition — parliamentary support to get a majority vote in favour of deployment," Harper said.
It is fairly obvious that Harper is just hoping to get an election called before the Liberals can get their house in order, if they ever do, though the latest polls suggest that they would be headed for another minority, if not a Liberal one. Only probable strategy I can see is to make Canadians so sick of elections they finally give them a majority.
