the ALLDERBLOB

Guy Giorno, like a weeping pustule, burst onto the front page of the local paper the other day.

To put his eruption in context, one has to remember Canada’s recent election, called by the sitting Conservative Prime Minister, Steve Harper, just 7 weeks ago. In that election the Conservatives won a plurality: 143 out of 308 seats in the House of Commons, with the three other political parties splitting the other 163 seats (plus two independents):

Conservatives – 38% of the popular vote: 143 seats (would be 117 seats if we had proportional representation [pdf –ed.]

Liberals – 26% of the popular vote: 76 seats (would be 81 seats if we had proportional representation)

NDP – 18% of the popular vote: 37 seats (would be 57 seats if we had proportional representation)

Bloc – 10% of the popular vote: 50 seats (would be 28 seats if we had proportional representation)

Greens – 7% of the popular vote: 0 seats (would be 23 seats if we had proportional representation)

Under Canada’s parliamentary system, this result was enough to put Steve back in the PM’s residence, assuming he retains the “confidence” of a majority of the other MPs. No one in Canada can be said to be truly happy with this arrangement, but it works okay as long as the party in power doesn’t act too brashly.

But Brash is Steve. He (or rather the troika of Harper, Baird and Giorno) put forth a proposal to eliminate the right of civil servants to strike, to limit the ability of women to sue for pay equity, and to strip the federal payout to minority parties (currently set at something like $1.75 per vote earned in the election), among other contentious moves. Guy Giorno, the former ALLDERBLOB correspondent and now Harper’s chief of staff, has been in the thick of the fray.

What did he expect? Perhaps he thought the other MPs would take in on the chin, the way they have throughout his minority rule. But this was the most brazen of his power grabs to date, and the other parties finally got some backbone.

Actually, it’s as if the other three parties, emboldened by the “hope” that has saturated our southern neighbour in the past months, dared to ask “Why not?” as they faced yet another blustering attack from the right wingnuts. The leaders of the three other parties, who had until the past week been at each other’s throats as often as at the throat of the rightists, clued in that if they worked together they could throw out the dastardly Steve.

Harper has been able to run away from the democratic rule of the new coalition, for the time being. First by putting off the vote of non-confidence for a week, and then by requesting the Governor General prorogue Parliament, he has taken a “pro-rogue” position, and fastened his name to a rogue government, that will stand until the end of January. It remains to be seen what happens in the interim, and afterwards.

But it’s the rhetoric Harper’s chosen, refering to “socialists” and “separatists” and “deals with the devil” that have the hair rising on the back of this blobbist. Where is this rhetoric coming from?

We have our suspicions.

From a November 29, 2008 story in the Toronto Globe and Mail and Car Advertiser:

What a Guy.

Mr. Giorno’s message included very detailed scripts MPs are expected to follow while delivering radio interviews that include the following lines:

* We’re not even two months removed from the last election, and a group of backroom politicians are going to pick who the Prime Minister is. Canadians didn’t vote for this person. We don’t even know who this person will be.
* Not a single voter voted for a Liberal-NDP coalition. Certainly not a single voter voted for the Liberals to form a coalition with the separatists in the Bloc.
* This is what bothers me the most. The Conservatives won the election. The Opposition keeps saying that the Conservatives have to respect the will of the voters that this is a minority and so on.
* …how about Liberals, NDP and Bloc respecting the will of the voters when they said “YOU LOSE”.
* And what’s this going to do to the economy. I’m sorry, I don’t care how desperate the Liberals are — giving socialists (Jack Layton) and separatists (Gilles Duceppe) a veto over every decision in government — that is a recipe for total economic disaster.
* But how more phony could these guys be?
* I mean, I follow the news, virtually every single day you have Harper or Flaherty out there telegraphing exactly what they plan to do with the economy. And not once did you hear the Liberals, NDP or separatists talking about toppling the government in response.
* No — do you know what set this off. When Flaherty said he was going to take taxpayer-funded subsidies away from the opposition. Now there is a reason to try and overturn an election— because the Conservatives the audacity to say “Hey, it’s a recession, maybe you should take your nose out of the trough.”
* And I wish the media would be more clear on this point — the opposition aren’t being singled out by this fact the Conservatives stand to lose the most money of all. The only difference is that Canadians are voluntarily giving money the Conservatives, so they don’t need taxpayer handouts. The only reason the opposition would be hurt more is because nobody wants to donate to them. They should be putting their efforts towards fixing that problem.
* I don’t want another election. But what I want even less is a surprise backroom Prime Minister whom I never even had the opportunity to vote for or against. What an insult to democracy.