As has been said many times in the last week, it is hard to imagine that Canadian politics could be so exciting. What began in Ottawa last week has completely overshadowed the appointment by president-elect Barack Obama of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. It all began when the Conservative government, in presenting an economic update, tossed in a couple of other bones. The Tories decided to do away with taxpayer subsidies to political parties that currently amounts to $1.95 for each vote obtained in the last election. The Tories also added, for reasons probably known only to them that federal civil servants would not be allowed to strike throughout 2009. These matters, especially the removal of party subsidies that would cause the least hardship to the governing Conservatives, so incensed the opposition parties that they began talks of forming a coalition that is capable of governing after next Monday’s confidence vote.
