Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe and NDP Leader Jack Layton have been left out on the hill.
In the House of Commons, Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe accused "the Liberal-Conservative coalition" of abandoning the unemployed and New Democratic Party Deputy Leader Tom Mulcair mocked Ignatieff as "deputy prime minister." Harper blasted the NDP as "completely irrelevant.
The deal establishes a six-member working group of Conservative and Liberal MPs and officials to study two major potential changes to the EI program and report back by Sept. 28. While Jack and Gilles may be surprised at this new agreement, Liberal and Conservative coalitions are really nothing new for Canada.
The Liberal-Conservative Party was the formal name of the Conservative Party of Canada until 1873, although some Conservative candidates continued to run under the label as late as the 1911 election and others ran as simple Conservatives prior to 1873. In many of Canada's early elections, there were both "Liberal-Conservative" and "Conservative" candidates; however, these were simply different labels used by candidates of the same party, both were part of Sir John A. Macdonald's government and official Conservative and Liberal-Conservative candidates would not, generally, run against each other. It was also not uncommon for a candidate to run on one label in one election and the other in a subsequent election.
Jack and Gilles also have some experience with coalitions themselves after signing on with former Liberal Leader Stephane Dion
in a short lived bid to topple Harper's Conservatives
While Jack and Gilles contemplate where they go from here confused Canadians may be waking up this morning and wondering, who really is our Prime Minister
No comments:
Post a Comment