Bill C-257, which gave me waking nightmares, appears to be more than just a private member’s bill designed to cripple the Canadian economy. It is another example of Liberal’s flip flopping and another example of just how far left Stephane Dion really is.
He has moved so far left that centrists don’t even recognize him. But why?
First of all we have the Conservatives showing they are truly a modern party and not the extremist, right wing, scary Party the Liberals have painted them to be for a decade. This has given the Tories growth towards the Liberal center.
Then we have the NDP, who showed a bit of strength when they held up Martin’s minority government the way an emphysema sufferer is held up by a green oxygen tank outside the hospital doors. Lend Jack your vote and he would chomp a bit of the left leaning Liberals over to the NDP.
So Dion steps in stuck between a Rock and a somewhat hard place. Where is he going to get his votes? Does he fight the right in a battle of wits with a seasoned warrior like Harper who is pummeling him in Question Period day after day after day? Or does he look for the low hanging fruit, and try to steal back the NDP voters who do not want Harper in government no matter what?
My guess is the latter.
This is why the Liberals have flip-flopped again and chosen to support anti-scab legislation.
At first, few took the bill seriously.
The handiwork of Bloc Quebecois MP Richard Nadeau, the proposed legislation was introduced as a so-called private-member’s bill, one of dozens of draft laws floated by backbench MPs that go nowhere, quietly dying on the Commons order paper.
Nadeau’s bill was also the tenth attempt by an opposition MP to introduce anti-scab legislation in recent years, all of which failed to materialize under previous Liberal governments.
But a funny thing happened on the Grits’ way to the opposition benches.
When the bill came to preliminary votes in the Commons, it was suddenly backed by the Liberals, along with the Bloc, New Democrats and even a few Conservative MPs from Quebec (who have since recanted) — more than enough to pass through the minority parliament.
I guess the TENTH time is the charm.
So after nine failed attempts at having anti-scab legislation go through the house under the Liberals watch (with support from the Tories to stop it each time), Dion has chosen to forsake the Canadian economy, the way he would by shutting down industry to meet Kyoto, and support the tenth attempt at getting anti-scab legislation through.
Stop Bill C-267. Write your MP. If he/she is a Liberal, write him/her and get a few friends to do the same. This legislation is just plain wrong and a Liberal flip flop on this needs to be addressed.
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Mulder, I’m confused. I thought Dion switched back again.
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Holy Mackerel!!! Joanne, that was fast but thanks for the heads up. The Greg Weston article was from yesterday and today they have reversed themselves.
This is great news. Hopefully we can watch C267 die a quick death on the order books.
(This is one of those flip flop flips that rarely happens)
Steve
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Keeping up with Dion’s flipflops is head spinning!!
As Chantel Hebert pointed out, Dion is swooping left to set the Libs up as the ‘only left leaning party that can stop a Harper majority’.
Will Dippers and the newly energized Greens go for it?
Will they surrender their parties to a Dion lead Liberal party, uniting the left for fear of PMSH led Conservative majority government?
If Dippers and Greens go for it, there is no turning back, Dippers will lose party status and Greens will never get it.
Would we then have a 2 party system ?, bye bye Proportional Representation.
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Harper established the Conservative Party during the last election campaign as the Party of ordinary, mainstream Canadians.
Dion meanwhile sees the NDP, the Bloc, and many Green Party supporters as fertile ground for harvesting and asked Bob Rae to write the next Liberal Red Book, outflanking even the principled membership of the NDP on many issues. All the while trying to paint anyone to his right as a “right-wing ideologue”.
Is it really any wonder that Dion has swung the Liberal Party so far left? Or that so many Liberals now find themselves in disagreement with their Party’s policies of the day?
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Stephane Dion is losing support because he has taken the Liberal Party away from the mainstream with his socialist policies. He needs to wake up and realize that he is in politics and not in academia, where others with his views are most prevalent. Most of the voter support is in the centre and PMSH and the Conservatives have succeeded in appealing to those voters.
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Excuse me but perhaps you might like to check out how a members bill actually passes. The committee studying the bill (Cons, Libs, Bloc and NDP members) all gave their feedback and then added their amendments. Now as your state the flop is actually a rejection by the speaker of house of a Liberal amendment for an essential services clause (in my opinion a real necessity to protect the public). Therefore back to the drawing board as anyone who really cares about the Canadians and not just in it for political posturing must think. Heres an interesting fact for your fans. Did you know that over the past 16 years of their existance the bloc has only managed to pass 2 yes 2 out of lets say on the low side 30 submissions a year for 16 years of members motions…2 out of 480…and thats being generous with the number of members bills.
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Is Stéphane Dion a flip-flopper?
If enough Canadians believe he is, Dion stands to lose the next election. That’s what happened to John Kerry in the 2004 U.S. presidential election. The Republicans tarred him as a chronic flip-flopper, and the label stuck.
George W. Bush can thank pollster Frank Luntz in part for bringing down Kerry, and Stephen Harper has turned to Luntz for advice on how to win his election. Time for some Kerry treatment on Dion.
Harper has changed his mind more than a few times. Think of his about-faces on Kyoto and taxing investment trusts. But few in the media are calling him on it.
CanWest picks up the beat
Aping the role of Fox News as the main cheerleader for the Bush administration, the Asper family’s right-wing bully pulpit, the National Post, led the campaign against Dion. One editorial attacked Bill C-257. Liberal support for this bill, the Post hectored, “would mark another colossal flip flop of the Stéphane Dion has become famous for.”
A week later, Post columnist Don Martin assessed that Dion had a “lousy week.” Why? “Not once or twice, but three times in four days we saw Mr. Dion flip-flop.” The column was apparently considered vital reading for all Canadians, since it was reprinted in the Montreal Gazette, Vancouver Sun and Ottawa Citizen.