Ladies and Gentlemen, it is the day after two major announcements.
1) Michael Ignatieff decided to support Stephen Harper’s Conservative government the day after he announced a budget that contained just enough lard and red ink to gain the support of the Liberal Party.
2) The Coalition is Dead. What began as an attempted Political Coup two months ago - what I was calling the
Three Stooges of Coupscam - died yesterday when Ignatieff divorced his two amigos, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe.
The death of the coalition to me says a lot more about Ignatieff's character than his tepid support for the Harper budget.
For more than eight weeks, Michael Ignatieff blew kisses at his coalition partners, flirted and teased, made them think that when the moment of truth came and he had a chance of bringing down the Harper government that he would pull the trigger. But instead, he folded like the kind of cheap suit Imperial Ignatieff would never wear.
Now it must be said that Ignatieff inherited the coalition from Stephane Dion, the previous Liberal leader who, although is still a member of the Liberal caucus, is now invisible for all too see. There are today more sightings of Elvis Presley than of Stephane Dion. And we all know why. He was the one who signed the pathetic document that included the words Quebec and Canada as if the two entities had already been separated from each other. Ignatieff signed that document because it was in his interest to do so. Yesterday it was no longer in his interest. Any careful examination of the life and times of Michael Ignatieff will show that the one core principle he will never abandon is his ability to abandon. Friends, acquaintances, organizations, causes, universities, countries and now coalition partners. All have tasted the sour juice of abandonment. Michael Ignatieff, as anyone paying attention knows, was never elected by his party members to be leader. Ignatieff successfully convinced the party brass to abandon the idea of a real leadership convention. When democracy becomes inconvenient, Michael Ignatieff goes to his default position, Abandon. We need to remember that he signed off on the coalition document which was all about abandoning democracy.
It was about having the three stooges of Coupscam creating a government without the voter's consent, which they would never get. And so when it came to the idea of having another leadership convention in the spring, Michael Ignatieff told the party executive, “Democracy is great on paper. But look at what it produced the last time. Let's not take a chance on another Dion. To quote the great Poet ABBA, Take a Chance on Me.” Then faster than you can say Mama Mia, the Liberal bosses said yes to the Imperial Ignatieff. And yesterday, when it came time for him to announce his decision to support the Conservative government and abandon his coalition partners, it produced one very memorable quote that is worth mentioning here. It comes from Thomas Mulcair, member of the abandoned NDP, who said, “Ignatieff will turn 65 and get his pension before we see an election...Oh no wait, he can't get a pension, he's never worked in Canada.” Sour grapes from the NDP you say? Once upon a time, the NDP was happy to have the man who never worked in Canada working for the NDP and the Bloc, in order to have the coalition in power so that people like Thomas Mulcair would have a seat at the cabinet table alongside his leader Jack Layton.
Yesterday, after Dear Jack got his Dear John letter from the Great Abandoner, he called a news conference where he did play his favorite role, VICTIM. He called Ignatieff every name in the book, for having done to the unelected coalition what Jack and Gilles tried to do to the elected government of Stephen Harper. Now Jack at the best of times, is half man and half ham. Yesterday, he was 90 percent ham, pretending for the cameras that the coalition had a plan, a real plan to rescue Canadians from this Titanic economy, and the coalition would have rescued everyone on the ship, especially the MOST VULNERABLE, but it was Ignatieff that got in the way of the rescue. That dirty low down Ignatieff, that one eyed Pirate with a Wooden Heart...he was the one who wouldn't let the life boats pick up all the passengers. The pirate only wanted to help the passengers with lots of booty for him to plunder. The pirate was prepared to drown the passengers who were there and here comes the phrase that every phony loves to use...The pirate was prepared to drown the MOST VULNERABLE.
Ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you who the most vulnerable members of Canadian society are. The hard working, productive tax payers. The hard working, productive, middle class Canadian families. They are taxed to the max, or to use a politically incorrect term in contemporary liberal society, they are taxed up the ying-yang. And yesterday, when the Great Abandoner was in full turbo diesel scold mode, he told the country that the Liberal party really showed its great value in Canadian society because if it wasn't for the Liberal party the new budget wouldn't have all those dollars for government economic development agencies. Yes, those blessed economic development agencies employing lots of future Liberal votes.
If you want to find out about the great contribution those agencies have been making, talk to the people on Cape Breton Island, where unemployment is in a permanent state of depression. You can get unemployment benefits in Cape Breton even after you have only worked for a few months because the place is so depressed, nobody is expected to be able to hold a job in an economy that only a government economic agency wouldn’t abandon. Perhaps Michael Ignatieff would like to visit some Indian Reserves in the Far North to get another whiff of what Economic Development Agencies have been able to produce. The next time you hear the Great Abandoner use the words Economic Development Agency just think of the Paul Simon lyric, My Little Town, "After it rains there's a rainbow. And all the Colors are black. It's not that the colors aren't there. Its just imagination they lack. Everything's the same, back in my little town. Nothing but the dead and dying in my little town."
Many Canadians hear those words ringing in their ears when Ignatieff talks about more and more tax dollars going to economic development agencies, which, let's be clear does produce votes for the Liberals, the NDP and the Bloc. Economic Development is a euphemism for “Money for Nothin’.” It takes money from the most vulnerable members of Canadian society - people who work - and then delivers it to people who work for government agencies, who become reliable votes for Liberals. A transfer of wealth that becomes a transfer of power. Ignatieff likes parts of the budget because parts of it creates more votes for Liberals. And so he condescendingly approves of that part of the budget. When he isn't condescending, he is scolding, scolding the government for putting in tax cuts which may be permanent. Why give a break to people working hard for their money who aren't as likely to vote for the Liberals as those working for those agencies on the receiving end of the money? And when the Great Abandoner isn't scolding the prime minister, and treating him like a school child, telling him to make sure he hands his papers on time every month so that he can be graded by the Great Abandoner. Of course, the grading he will do will have nothing to do with term papers being handed in by the prime minister. It will be all about polling numbers. Polling numbers done for him by Liberal pollsters who didn't give him the green light on the weekend to pull the pin on the government. We need the economy to continue to shrink, they told him. We need more people to be with their lot. We need more of the new nightly Canadian TV shows called The Hopeless Canadian. The more media coverage of the Hopeless Canadian, the greater your hopes Mr. Ignatieff of winning an election. So wait a bit. Just a wait a bit and you will get your chance. The Harper government doesn't yet have enough scar tissue.
Scar Tissue is the name of one of Ignatieff's books, what he calls a documenary fiction. If Ignatieff were to write a book about the Liberal Party, it too would likely be a documentary fiction. Liberal Economic Development - Fiction. Liberal Official Bilingualism Turning Quebec into a Happy Bilingual Province -Fiction. Liberal Justice Policies Creating Justice in our Legal System. Justice for Victims. Real Justice for Criminals - Fiction – Fiction - Fiction. And how about that Liberal National Energy Program Creating Opportunities for Growth and Energy Opportunities - Fiction. How about Millions of Tax Dollars Going to Quebec Ad Agencies to Save Canada from the Separatists - Fiction. And how about that Green Shift Rescuing the Planet Earth by Attacking Canadians who Want to Fuel their Cars and Heat their Homes. Yes, Ignatieff was all for that, until he abandoned it only weeks ago.
And now the latest fiction. Michael Ignatieff, the unelected leader of the Liberals rescuing the Canadian economy by imposing its wonderful Liberal economic ideas on the budget - Fiction. What the Great Abandoner has done successfully is put a gun to the head of the Harper government, blackmailing the Government into bringing in a budget that will drown the Canadian balance sheet in red ink for many years to come.
In the meantime, much of the Canadian media will treat the Great Abandoner as the Prime Minister in Waiting, a Northern Obama. Michael Hussein Ignatieff is scheduled to become Prime Minister by Christmas of this year if not sooner, and it will happen if enough voters abandon their senses. If you are looking for a safe harbor from this fiction storm, you have it here.
I'm Charles Adler, and this is the Corus Radio Network.
