Incase You Missed It (I Did): The Budget Got Through

Stephen Harper's government lives to die another day, but how did a threat of non-confidence end up passing 211 to 91? Are we still heading for a massive federal deficit? (Image: National Post) Well, as reported by CBC, the Members of Parliament got down to business and passed a budget. After all the hubbub over the past couple of months, this seems a bit anti-climatic.

The country is still heading towards a deficit, which is projected to continue until the 2011 fiscal year (at the very least). There are plenty of spending initiative to kick-start the economy, which have been so effective in the United States. Of course there are some positive features to note...

Highlighted by the CBC in its article, perhaps the single most important change to the budget bill, is the provision that forces the Conservative government to update parliament on the progress of the budget initiatives. This provides the opposition with a chance to see what's going on, and, perhaps, ground upon which to start a non-confidence vote if the budget is mishandled.

Also of note is the movement by the NDP and Bloc to strike down this amendment when the Liberals proposed it -- though they obviously failed, the sentiment is starkly apparent. Similarly, with a few special exceptions the Liberal party supported the budget in the vote earlier today while the NDP and Blog stood their ground voting against the budget.

Now, while I'm sure there are many of you who dislike the coalition initiative -- and as hard as I try some of you may never hear any of it -- but the opposition should not split like this. In effect, the result is a Conservative Minority against a Bloc + NDP alliance with the Liberals in the middle, effectively holding the power. This is far less ideal in a democracy than a coalition government.

We'll have to watch how this plays out closely. Maybe Ignatieff will make his plans known now that this is out of the way. I find it hard to believe there is no hidden powerplay beyond what has come out today.
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How Obama's win affects Canadian Politics

While reading the blog Laur Lore recently, I came across an interesting post about Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper following Obama's lead on key issues. (Image: CBC) As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, I find it hard to fully understand how it must feel to have a genuinely inspiring political movement occurring in my country, as Americans have this election year. I did expect, however, exactly what is described over at Laur Lore -- that is Harper emulating Obama.

Most politicians are followers not leaders. Their goal is to get elected by appealing to the most broad base that they can. For most, this means that they choose to meet the status quo, not push a real agenda. Here in Canada, Stephen Harper may be the follower of the time, but I don't believe any of the leaders of the major parties would be any better in this regard.

During the Bush years, there were a few instances where Canadian politicians stood up to United States policy. The main example of which was Canada's refusal to dedicate combat troops to the Iraq invasion. Canada instead took up the slack in Afghanistan, so it's hard to argue that the Prime Minister then was standing up to Bush.

When it gets down to it, Harper is about the same as any other politician. I am not defending him by any means, as I can hardly stand him, but I am saying that it's not that odd for Canadian politicians to follow a United States President's lead.

In the case of Barack Obama, more than just Canadian leaders are seeking to emulate his policies in an effort to catapult themselves through his success. In fact, even countries with rocky relations with United States under Bush, such as Cuba and Venezuela, are beginning to warm to Obama and embrace the "hope" message.

Hopefully political leaders, here in Canada and around the world, choose not to only emulate Obama's methods, but also to embrace his message in a genuine way.
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