I can’t hear you over the whetstones.
Michael Ignatieff seems to be picking up where Stephane Dion left off. The tough talk and rhetoric about a coalition was just that, all talk. In the end the Liberals accepted the Conservative budget with a token amendment. After all the rhetoric was finished the Liberals demanded that, wait for it, the government report back to the house on the economy’s progress.
I guess they figured that might not come up otherwise.
Now, we’ve been hearing how Ignatieff is different than Dion. I guess its true, since I don’t think even the affable professor would have let Liberal MPs break ranks during a confidence vote. But that’s just what Ignatieff did when he let 6 Atlantic MPs from Newfoundland vote against the budget.
The Globe and Mail has it right:
The optics of going against a leader in a budget vote are not good, which is why MPs are usually disciplined. In 2007, former Liberal MP Joe Comuzzi was kicked out of Stéphane Dion’s caucus for pledging to support the Conservative budget. In 1996, John Nunziata was kicked out of Jean Chrétien’s Liberal caucus for voting against the government’s budget over what he considered a broken promise not to rescind the GST.
Others among the Liberals are wondering where it will stop. Could Newfoundland MPs break ranks again on another issue? And what about Quebec MPs, who are upset with some of the budget measures?
I wonder how long before the knives come out for Ignatieff.
Things didn’t work out to well for Paul Martin after his thirst for power lead to a putsch against Chretien. I wonder if Ignatieff will suffer the same fate after his coup. At least Martin had the legitimacy of a convention where he was acclaimed.
One thing is for sure, I’ll bet Bob Rae can’t stop laughing.
- Rafael.
Leave a Reply