Canuck Politics

Links:

• Stephane Dion: NDP’s separatist pandering threatens national unity (National Post, March 12, 2012)

Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper kicked-off the 2011 Federal Election campaign by accusing the opposition parties of having a hidden agenda to form a coalition government in the event of another Conservative minority parliament.

Unless Canadians elect a stable national government, Mr. Ignatieff will form a coalition with the NDP and the Bloc Québécois.

- Stephen Harper

Harper warns of hidden coalition agenda, Ignatieff denies it, Duceppe is willing,
and Layton would be Prime Minister of a minority government 

After several days dodging the question, Liberal leader Micheal Ignatieff issued an early morning statement in which he rules out a coalition in the event of a Liberal minority parliament:

We will not enter a coalition with other federalist parties.   In our system, coalitions are a legitimate constitutional option.  However, I believe that issue-by-issue collaboration with other parties is the best way for minority Parliaments to function.

- Micheal Ignatieff

However, Ignateiff’s statement does not rule out a coalition if the Conservatives win the most number of seats, but not a majority.

Meanwhile, NDP leader Jack Layton is actively running to become Prime Minister of a minority government, especially if the election produces another Conservative minority parliament:

This time we have to do something different.  This time, it’s not enough to keep Stephen Harper from his majority, this time we have to replace him …

I’m asking for a mandate to lead the next government.  And if that turns out to be a minority parliament, as Prime Minister you can count on me to reach out to all members of Parliament who believe in building a better Canada.

And together we will provide an alternative to a Harper-led government — whether its on a case-by-case basis as has been done in the last five years, or more stable arrangements — I will work with the mandate you give me.

- Jack Layton

A coalition government could have the support of the Bloc Québécois, according to Gilles Duceppe who remains open to the option.

If they propose something like that, we look if it is in the best interests of Quebec.

- Gilles Duceppe

Links:

• Statement by Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff (March 27, 2011)

April 22 and 23, 2010 - EKOS pollster Frank Graves has ignited controversy over his recent advice to the Liberal Party that they should “invoke a culture war” on Western Canadians.

I told them that they should invoke a culture war. Cosmopolitanism versus parochialism, secularism versus moralism, Obama versus Palin, tolerance versus racism and homophobia, democracy versus autocracy. If the cranky old men in Alberta don’t like it, too bad. Go south and vote for Palin.

- Frank Graves, President EKOS Research

The Conservative Party points to the fact Graves donated over $11,000 to the Liberal Party during a time when taxpayers paid EKOS Reasearch $61 million under the Liberal governments of Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin.  The Conservatives also raised questions about the CBC’s impartiality because the network always presented Graves as a “neutral pollster” in his frequent appearances on air.

Graves later apologized and denied any bias, but he repeated his calls for a culture war, and also says he has emperical proof  to support his comments about Western Canadians and Conservative supporters.

There is a higher incidence of people who are less tolerant to homosexuals and more wary of other races, within the Conservative Party. I can demonstrate that empirically.

- Frank Graves, President EKOS Research

The Conservative Party has launched a letter-writing campaign protesting the CBC’s continued use of EKOS and Graves as their “pollster of record”.

Related Links:

• Questions about Frank Graves
• Unethical pollster Graves must be fired