The NDP wants Canada to change to a so-called proportional representation system from the first-past-the-post method of sending MPs to the House of Commons today.
Mr. Layton said that proportional representation -- where parties win Parliamentary seats according to the percentage of votes they get in an election - would end Liberal dominance of Parliament. The Liberals often get no more than 40 per cent of the national vote but control a majority of seats because their candidates come up the middle after other parties split the vote in ridings, he says.
"We want to change the system that is allowing this kind of relatively arrogant ... government to exist in the country," Mr. Layton said.
[snip]...Prime Minister Paul Martin's Liberals have seen their national support slide nine percentage points because of the $250-million sponsorship scandal.
An Ipsos-Reid poll conducted immediately after the release of Auditor-General Sheila Fraser's report on the scandal last week shows the Martin government dropped nine percentage points this month, down to 39 per cent of decided voters, from 48 per cent in January.
Another drop of five to six percentage points would put the government's majority in danger if an election were held this spring, pollsters say.
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It's worth a try. Let's see how this one plays out.
Stumble It!
in a minority government, even provincially it has rarely happens.
Instead, they have negotiated support on specific confidence motions
(ex.: budget bills) in exchange for support of progressive
measures.
What Layton is saying is that if the Liberals want the NDP\'s support for
confidence motions such as the budget, there will be a number of
conditions, the first being that a referendum on proportional
representation be held. But there\'s no way Layton would bargain away
such fundamental issues to the NDP such as BMD, NAFTA and other
trade agreements or even the census. NDP members would lynch him!
I don\'t think Jack has really read the treaty.
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"Arrogance in Politics is unacceptable"
Jim Callaghan
Minden, Ontario
705-286-1860
www.misterc.ca
And can the others be trusted any more?!
I think it was a strategic error to make this statement.
We don\'t even know the names of the culprits of the latest scandal related to the Liberals; the cause Layton can even entertain such thoughts. Should Layton not have mentionned as the first precondition that names will be revealed of who stole taxpayers\' money and that measures are implemented to hopefully avoid similar misappropriations in the future?
An election hasn\'t even been called yet and he offers to keep the Liberals in power. Why even bother to vote NDP then? Wasn\'t it under Trudeau that the NDP kept the Liberals in power until the latter saw fit to call an election? And the NDP lost considerable support in it, if I\'m not mistaken.
Way too early to offer the support if indeed it should really be forthcoming other than for measures, like proportional representation, the NDP stands for.
They should not offer to keep them in power at all unless they entered a formal coalition government. (And that won\'t happen and would proabably kill the NDP as a force of the left.)
Kevin Gagnon
http://www.kevingagnon.ca
My memory isn\'t good enough to remember when the NDP held the balance of power in a Trudeau minority government.
Perhaps you can remind me what year that was ?
Thanks.
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"Arrogance in Politics is unacceptable"
Jim Callaghan
Minden, Ontario
705-286-1860
www.misterc.ca
It\'s always nice to see new postings, it shows us that the masses are actually becoming interested in the state of affairs, it\'s going to be the next pandemic, I hope!
Do you have any idea how fast our numbers could rise ??
Just a thought. I\'ve already done so, twice.
The Internet is huge, let\'s try to maximize it.
---
"Arrogance in Politics is unacceptable"
Jim Callaghan
Minden, Ontario
705-286-1860
www.misterc.ca
A quick google search turned up these links (and more about minority governments in Canada):
\"Minority government can be exciting -- and politically dangerous
...... For former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, who was a minister in one minority government, led another, and headed the opposition in a third, they were exciting times, akin to canoeing through seething rapids........But minorities are exhilarating in the way a bungee jump is exhilarating, says a less-enthusiatic Liberal aide who helped cope with the fallout after the 1972......
http://www.canoe.ca/PastHeadlines/may30_minority.html
\"A chronology of the life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau .....
Oct. 30, 1972: Liberals win minority government.
July 8, 1974: Federal election returns Liberal majority.\"
http://www.canoe.ca/CNEWSTrudeauNews/00 ... u5-cp.html
The following is from a short paper which I have only skimmed. So I don\'t necessarily agree with it.
\"....Out of eighteen post-war elections, all but three produced a government representing a minority of voters, all but
six of them with a majority of seats. These six were all short-lived minority governments....\"
http://www.fairvotecanada.org/updir/Tho ... lition.pdf