Suspending Parliament

There are still people out there that are upset that the GG agreed to suspend parliament. All I can say is that they are living in a dream world where fantasies are granted.

The tension in Ottawa was becoming unreasonable. The opposition was not interested in being cooperative with the government and were in fact looking at trying to take over the government. The problem with this was, and still is, that the proposed coalition is unstable.

If we were to have Dion have become Prime Minister this week, I can not see how he would have been able to name a cabinet, develop a program of government and managed to avoid defeat in the house given the current abilities of the Liberals. A coalition government now would have quickly been in crisis and lead us to either a constitutional crisis of governance or a new election.

With parliament suspended till late January, the Liberals can choose a new leader - sorry crown Ignatief, they can develop a real program of government, or they can see how far Harper will compromise. Other than taking away the hated public subsidy of the parties, the core economic direction of the Conservatives is largely acceptable for the Liberals.

If Ignatief is smart, he will ensure that parliament does not fall and that Harper has to govern through tough times. The Liberals need to understand that as a party they need to build a much larger supporter base on the ground, the party needs to raise a lot more money for their members, and they need to overhaul how the party functions. I have no idea if Ignatief has the skills or the team to make this happen.

The reality is that only the Conservatives have the MPs and skills at this time to govern. The Liberals are not ready or prepared to be a government.

The federal NDP is much weaker than its counter parts in the western provinces and is light on the ground for people that are ready to govern. The brightest and best in the NDP in BC, Saskatchewan and Manitoba all tend to run to MLAs and not MPs. And when bigger name New Democrats leave the provincial scene for the federal one, too many of them are choosing to become Liberals.

The suspension of parliament will let everyone calm down and will allow us to return to a stable minority government.