thoughts on a potential coalition

we may be socialists, but that does not exclude us from having the right to government.  I know the right (and most days, the “centre” as the neoliberals are called) don’t believe it, but for a good few million Canadians, voting for the NDP is what represents their views.

so it should come as a huge surprise that, lo and behold, democracy actually will speak if this coalition gets going.  The reason I say it will speak is that a coalition government will form out of the actual will of the people.  The Tories have never formed a majority under their current incarnation.  They received 38% of the voting vote, far less than even the 41% who didn’t bother voting.  Far, far less than a majority.  Their seat count, in a vastly inferior electoral system that we have – first-past-the-post- didn’t deliver a majority.

no, the majority was delivered, like the vote, to the Liberal, NDP and Bloc parties.  It only is logical that they receive government, and british parliamentary tradition should not dictate everything.  This is Canada, not Britain: our ancient system of a Governor General has a use here to actually install the government the people actually elected.

This is a culmination for so many.  I cannot even begin to fathom what this must mean to my grandfather, if he understands it.  It is the first time in Canada that NDP members will sit at the federal cabinet table.  I cannot begin to imagine the hardship of the 30s that allowed this movement to begin, and here it has begun to take government, a scant 70 some years later.

Economic hardship dictates that we must work together.  It is the communitarian way, above and beyond any political leanings.  My neighbours who beg from me my change every time I go shopping for groceries are in this same country just as my neighbours who drive by in two seater gas guzzlers.  We must all work together, for the economy is nothing more than human created.  we can change it to suit our liking.

Just as we can change this government, finally.  I warn any hard core leftists, including myself, to be tolerant of these first two years.  This is the *first time the NDP is in government in Canada.*  If we want a repeat of the Ontario NDP under Rae, then let’s caw loudly and complain about every policy we can’t possibly implement in the first two years.  If we want to build a potential for an NDP government with a larger caucus, a sizeable plurality, or (hell, I’ll settle) a PR system that practically guarantees coalitions like this in the future – then we put our support behind this deal which gets us:

- A government commiting to hard targets on environmental action and climate change
- A government where practically every member accepts, approves of and voted for same sex marriage
- A government where an agenda for First Nations and aboriginal peoples is part of the behind-the-scenes bargain
- A government where regular people actually might, for the first time, sit at the cabinet table and reflect the will of the working class.

I am, for one, very excited.