Modeling Journey

But if the NDP and Bloc vote against the Harper budget, and Ignatieff leads the Liberals to prop up the faltering Tory government, then I shall post the following:

A Sad Day for Canada

Michael Ignatieff has lead the Liberal Party MPs to support the budget tabled by Harper, and in so doing, has parted company from the Bloc and the NDP.

He has also turned his back on the commitment by the Government of Canada to the G20 countries, which required a stimulus package to be implemented equal to at least 2% of the national GDP; the Harper budget with its stimulus package of just over $20 billion falls shy of this target.

Ignatieff has also turned his back on the Accord which all three opposition parties signed in December, under which the three parties agreed to comply with the G20 agreement, and to push through a stimulus package in accordance with the principles spelled out in the Accord.

Finally, Ignatieff has sided with Harper and turned his back on Canadians, who are now at the mercy of a prime minister whose career has been based on the reduction of the power of the federal government, and who believes in a limited role for such government. Harper has shown that his ideological fixation blinded him to the oncoming economic tsunami, and caused his government to proclaim that Canada was an island unto itself, immune from the international financial meltdown and the international recession.

At a time when governments of all industrialized nations are realizing that their stimulus packages of 2% might in fact be insufficient to protect their citizens from the ravages of deflation, Harper has tabled a limited stimulus package.

By supporting the Tory government, Ignatieff has joined himself to Harper at the hip, and has in essence entered into a de facto coalition with the Tories, instead of becoming the prime minister of a Liberal-NDP coalition government.

Ignatieff and the Liberals will now be responsible to Canadians when the Harper too-little, too-late budget proves insufficient to protect Canadians.

Canadians who lose their jobs because the stimulus package did not cover the items set out in the Accord, or amount to the proper sum (at least 2% of GDP for now), should blame not only Harper when they lose their jobs, their homes and their livelihoods, but more particularly, each and every Liberal MP, and vote accordingly at the next election.

Because the Liberal MPs had a choice.

They could have voted to install a progressive centre government, with a more realistic stimulus program.

Instead, they supported Harper, who could not find it in himself to honour the commitment made to the G20 countries and provide a $32 billion stimulus package in 2009; instead, faced with the ongoing deficit of $13 billion before the stimulus, Harper balked at a total budget deficit of $45 billion and so settled for the lesser figure of $20 billion or so.

By supporting Harper now, Ignatieff has ensured that he will lose the leadership of the Liberal Party at the review called after the Liberal loss in the next election, and also his chance to become prime minister of Canada.

At a time when courage was called for, the Liberals offered cowardice.

In Canada, ‘Yes we can’ has become ‘No, we dare not.’

What a sad day for Canada.