Wednesday 30 March 2011

Manic Depression or Coalition?

This election has made me manic depressive. Madly hopeful one minute, scared shitless the next.

I seem not to be alone in my affliction. Today, NDP candidate Ryan Dolby dropped out of the race in Elgin-Middlesex-London in an effort to unseat incumbent ReformaTory, Joe Preston.
Dolby suddenly announced through an email Wednesday morning he's leaving the race to throw his support behind Liberal Graham Warwick.

"I am worried if Stephen Harper gets a majority. I made a strategic decision," Dolby said.

Evil, reckless coalitioning has begun!

And I found yet another grassroots group: Canadians for Coaltion.



Canadians for Coalition is a grassroots collective pressing for a stable federal government and collaborative Parliament. We understand coalition government to be a constitutional option to a one party minority. We represent no political parties.

We got wind that an election was brewing when the Conservatives started an election-style smear campaign this winter targeted at Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff. Concerned that the possible election would devolve into a series of character assassinations to serve Harper’s quest for majority rule, we decided to send another message.

We gathered together our friends to shoot a series of videos, and created this website with the aim of tapping into a growing appetite among left-leaning voters, who incidentally made up the majority in the last election, for a coalition government.

Join us. Let’s send Ignatieff and Layton a message that we support a Liberal-NDP coalition government if the Conservatives fail yet again to win a majority. Let’s see a government that better reflects the values of the majority of voters, and offers stable governance once again.

Finally, let’s vote. A coalition is only going work well if the Liberals and NDP collectively outnumber the Conservatives. It’s really up to us to turn our dysfunctional parliament around and get our elected officials working effectively on the issues that matter most to us.

Lots of good info on coalitions at the site.

Like them on their Facebook page. And follow on Twitter.

We scaredy cats need company.

5 comments:

ricky said...

I like the coalition idea. It will likely happen after an election anyway. The Libs after all just adopted the NDP policy on GIS today. As to the former NDP guy that jumped ship today, he will be replaced within the next few days. If a real coalition were to be mounted, lets see some LPCers make a move.

Anonymous said...

Wow. Really, you applaud Dolby's disgraceful decision to dishonour his supporters and degrade our MULTI-PARTY democracy?

I support a coalition but AFTER the voters have had a chance to exercise their democratic rights at the polls. Sorry, but I'm not as excited about a "A or B" type US-style farce as you seem to be.

Good luck.

fern hill said...

I share Dolby's fear for our multi-party democracy. Rabid partisans got us into this mess and unless there is some cooperation from the middle and the left, it will continue.

Anonymous said...

They've found a solution to "rapid partisanship" in the US - it's called a two party system.

fern hill said...

The USians are very 'rapid' in their partisanship because of the two-party system.

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