First, the disagreement. Impolitical wants us to write to the G-G in support of the coalition.
I'm not going to.
The Governor-General should NOT be influenced by anyone. In our funny system, the Governer-General is apart. Apart. Not political, not influenceable. She has a job to do and I expect her to do it to the best of her judgement and ability. It is an insult to the office and position to try to influence her decision. And before someone with a long memory reminds me that I encouraged people to write to the G-G on the Morgentaler decision, I point out that that was after the decision had been made.
Now the agreement. A Blogging Tory is taking crap at his (?) site for writing:
Rally For Canada is Wrong
The idea of holding mass protests to try and subvert British parliamentary tradition is wrong in principle and wrong in practice. This is the kind of thing the left and right did in France in the 1930's to delegitimize a constitutional government.
. . .
So, don't do it; don't 'Rally For Canada.' The dangers are too great, the partisan advantage too little.
We have a Parliamentary democracy in Canada, not mob rule.
It is already ugly in the media, the House, and the blogosphere. The Conservatives are trying to paint their opponents as 'traitors'.
Cameron at Peterborough Politics reports on a rally and counter-rally in Peterborough today.
The Peterborough This Week also had a short write up on their site, along with video that was quite frankly disturbing. At the 25 second mark of the "This Week" video, you actually hear the highly partisan crowd chant "traitors" and "traitors to Canada", which are obviously just so helpful to this situation. This is sure evidence that the Conservatives are trying to sow the seeds of division, and are obviously not the least bit interested in working with the other parties. It's the politics of division at it's most craven and self serving, with no obvious shame or remorse. Nothing new, but taking it up to a whole new level.
What the coalition is trying to do is entirely legitimate. I wrote to the only person I voted for -- my MP -- to tell her that I support the coalition. That is all I can do.
The die is cast and we'll have to see how it plays out.
The Conservatives are desperate lying scum and are trying to corrupt the system. I will not participate in any further corruption. I will continue to write and opine, but I will not bother the G-G or lend my presence to any kind of mob, even a 'good' one.
3 comments:
I agree almost entirely with your post. The only thing I disagree (and only partly) with is being entirely against rallies.
Rallies can be a great way to show public support for or against a cause, in similar to street protests. However, when they devolve into calling people "traitors", (or in the states "terrorists".) It becomes dangerous to our democracy.
You don't rally to force the government to change, you rally to demonstrate support for a specific policy. Basically, in theory, it's supposed to be a way to gather publicly behind some cause.
Unfortunately, some people abuse it and turn it into a vicious snarling mob.
I was especially against the idea that one of rallies (and I don't even know for what side) was going to be the GG's residence, which is not only interfering but potentially threatening.
I quite agree about writing letters to the G-G, mostly because I hope she would ignore them and, in fact, assume that she would. So it's just a waste of time. I'm not sure I see it as politically threatening - more like politically ignorant, since it's asking her to do something because a lot of people want her to, rather than because it's the correct thing to do. I think that if Stephen Harper asks her to prorogue, it's similar ignorance.
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