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<\/p>\nThe immediate fate of the Coalition is not in Layton’s hands<\/p>\n
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The shape of things to come<\/p>\n
Ottawa — <\/span>You won’t have seen this picture (above) on your television, because it hasn’t happened… yet. We blended two TV images digitally to make it. Oh! The wonders of news media and digital imagineering.<\/p>\n But you may very well see something like this on the evening news this Wednesday when interim Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff reveals whether his party is going to support Jim Flaherty’s extremely stimulating budget.<\/p>\n If as all the political pundits have repetitiously been suggesting, he does support it, NDP leader Jack Layton’s eyes undoubtedly will take on that same steely look they had after Stéphan Dion’s first attempt at making a U-Tube video, and his moustache will be all of a quiver.<\/p>\n We tried to capture that flinty look, but like the Coalition itself our image is a bit of a hurriedly assembled mashup. Nothing’s perfect, eh?<\/p>\n Ignatieff’s dilemma<\/p>\n Ignatieff’s dilemma rests on the fact that after an exhaustive public consultation process that drew heavily on the advice of the country’s business élite, Harper and Flaherty may have put together a stimulus package acceptable to many, except perhaps the environmentalists.<\/p>\n It even recognises the need for massive government deficits — a tangible victory for the Coalition; its first (and maybe only) success.<\/p>\n We know this because the endless pre-budget announcements: $7billion in infrastructure spending; $1.5billion in new training funds for laid-off workers; $2billion into social housing and even support for home renovations — have made this the most transparent budget in Canadian history. And I thought that conservatism meant keeping with tradition.<\/p>\n The Opposition can quibble about the details, reminding us how tardy the Harper government has been in releasing cash to already-promised programs. And Canada’s premiers and mayors will no doubt protest loudly that it’s not enough cash to satisfy all their infrastructure needs.<\/p>\n But really, what’s not to like about loads of money, especially as it won’t be the generations who created this trouble that will be paying for it?<\/p>\n Rebuilding the Liberals?<\/p>\n Ignatieff may not be left with enough reasons to dismiss the budget, and Harper’s minority government along with it. But this may be his best and only chance of moving the Conservatives aside in the immediate future.<\/p>\n This may not be his intent. Many Liberals still cling to the belief that they are Canada’s “natural governing party,” and I believe that Ignatieff plans to resurrect it from the ashes left by its former leaders. For this he needs time. Debasing his regal currency by plunging into coalition government with Layton’s ‘working families’ may be not what Count Ignatieff wants.<\/p>\n Jack Layton needs the coalition because it would lift the NDP above its immutable glass ceiling of voter support. Michael Ignatieff thinks that he doen’t need the coalition because he and his Liberals believe they can win back power alone. On this, both he and they are entirely wrong.<\/p>\n
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