The coalition is dead, long live the coalition

The news today is full of the “death of the coalition”. Don’t believe it. The coalition hasn’t died at all, it has just changed members: Michael Ignatieff, who never felt comfortable with those left-wing types, chose to climb into bed with Stephen Harper instead.

Ignatieff himself points out many of the flaws in the new Conservative budget: it does not protect the unemployed; there is nothing to encourage conservation and the protection of our planet; it actually discourages pay equity for women and does not contain a plan for getting us out of deficit when things improve. I would add that it depends on provincial and city governments for some of its numbers, as well as increases that were scheduled for 2009 anyway.

Ignatieff was in an extremely powerful position. Both the NDP and the Bloc had come out against the budget. He could bring down the government with one vote. He could have used that power to demand concessions, to require that the Tories fix the flaws, or go down to ignominious defeat. So what did he say? “Okay, but we’ll be watching you.”

The government, he says, is on probation. Isn’t any minority government, all the time? And it would appear that they don’t have much to worry about. Iggy has shown his true colours, and they are Tory blue.

I feel tired and frustrated today. I was hoping that – for once – what the majority of the people wanted would actually matter. 62% of us voted against the Conservatives. We don’t want them in charge, and we don’t agree with their ideals. But apparently that doesn’t matter in this “democracy”. No wonder our last election had the lowest turn-out ever.

Obviously our system needs changes. I don’t know what the answer is right now, but the status quo clearly isn’t working.