A Response to Pillon

I thought this deserved its own post rather than a small comment. I thought Pillon's account of the coalition crisis was very good. his argument surrounds the fact that the coalition is not doing anything unconstitutional. it is probably the most intellectual argument that i have heard from the left yet. he takes a very ironical approach to the scare tactics employed by Harper. Harper's scare tactics stem from making the coaliton seem "separatist", "marxist", "undemocratic". It gets the right scared of the left.

By suggesting democratic values are at stake, Harper is using the oldest liberal trick in the book. trying to cling onto power by telling canadians the fundamentals of democracy will be ruined if he does not hang onto power. this is the same tactic used by American Liberals when they suggested that we shoul have invaded Iraq because the freedom and equality of Iraqi citizens are at stake.

Harpers fear tactics are a response to the Liberals trying to take away his power. But Pillon's argument is very dangerous because it falls into even more horrific scare tactics then those invoked by harper. Heres Pilon's ultimate irony:

"I do not mean to be alarmist in suggesting we may be heading for violence. But the actions of this Prime Minster are coming dangerously close to inciting mob rule. Harper is ramping up the heat of his rhetoric by invoking democracy and patriotism and insinuating that his opponents are attacking our democracy and that they are risking the unity of the country for their own gain."

Pillon sees harpers desperate attempt to cling onto power as a potential cause of mob rule. Thus upping the scariness of "the other" by another notch. I don't think Pillon escaped the rehtoric that he criticizes harper for using. Rather he is bringing the rhetoric to a new level that will be very advantageous for the support of the coalition.

However, now that Ignatieff is the leader of the Liberals i think the coalition is over. Ignatieff will likely wait until another election in a couple years, and compromise with harper in janauary making him look like a cooperative politician. canadians are unfamiliar with iggy and he needs some face time as an opposition leader before winning an election. afterall, the guy has lived in america for the past 20 years of his life. he was even one of those liberals that supported iraq that i mentioned earlier, and criticized chretien big time for not invading (now im caught up in right wing rhetoric). the coalition crisis will go down in the history book as a small win for the liberal party that made the conservatives look very desparate. Dion was the ultimate pawn for the liberal party after he lost the election for the liberals. so he does something very controversial that ends up being a win-win situation for the libs! If it backfires and canadians didn't support the coalition then dion could take the fall. and if it works and you get power, then liberals have the PM. Harper played the only card he could play to hold onto power: prorogue. its a win win for the liberal party and this could be the start of a trend to revitalize the liberal party. if anyone can do it it will be ignatieff... hes a trudeau type.