Canadians will lose their homes and rely on food banks while the Government and the so-called Opposition study Employment Insurance. Not fix. Study.
The endless minority Government lives on.
And Michael Ignatieff shows himself to be Stephane Dion with a better accent. Full of threats and bluster, but too weak to make real change.
James Curran sums it up with one question, "We dumped our former Leader because...?"
It's too depressing to write another word. Here are some other people's words:
Canadian Soapbox:
Iggy gets a powerplay and scores ... into his own net
Ignatieff's plan was to criticize and demand changes. ... Harper mulled those demands over for perhaps a nanosecond before basically saying "no". ... I've never seen someone trying to sound forceful and decisive while back pedalling so fast.
Peace, Order and Good Government, eh?:
Ignatieff must think this little bit of theatre allows him to be perceived as holding the government accountable and makes it appear as though we have a system that works. But in fact, people who have recently lost their jobs and don't qualify for EI, or those who will lose their jobs between now and the end of September (at least) and don't qualify for benefits, are still out of luck. Ignatieff claims he got results but he didn't. He got an agreement to talk about maybe getting some results in three and a half months.
Thomas Walkom, Toronto Star:
It's hard to take the federal Liberals seriously. They claim they want to hold Prime Minister Stephen Harper to account. But they don't. They criticize the Conservative government endlessly. But when the crunch comes, they support it. ...
For the Liberals, the time is never right. They come up with endless excuses for never forcing an election on the minority Harper government: They don't have enough money; they don't have enough candidates; their leader is too new; the polls are inauspicious; the weather is too warm; the weather is too cold.
In the spring, they say wait until fall. In the fall, they say wait until spring.
Don Martin, National Post:
The rookie Liberal leader went from condemning the government on multiple fronts, preening himself as a portrait of moral rectitude willing to defend his party’s virtue on the campaign trail if those Conservative evil-doers didn’t play nice with the unemployed, to a leader who was knocked back on his heels by a Prime Minister who did nothing but reject his key proposal.
Tiny Perfect Blog:
Remember "I will not sign a blank cheque," or "this government changes EI or they're done"?
This week, Ignatieff was reduced to begging for a bit of information from Harper in exchange for confidence, and he didn't even get that.
It seems as if the Ignatieff team felt the only thing needing change from the Dion days was the ability to knuckle under with flair!
Scott Feschuk, Macleans:
Stephane Dion may be gone from a leadership role, but his legacy of hysterical threats followed by ignoble climbdowns lives on, affecting our perception of his successor. This government is terrible, it is horrible, it is an abomination unto God himself – and we are totally going to do something about it, eventually, somewhere down the road, maybe spring-ish. But now we dance!
More Feschuk:
What do we want? Further numerical information pursuant to a number of ongoing political files!
When do we want it? By Friday. Or perhaps later. Listen, we’re flexible on that!
Michael Ignatieff, CTV News, June 17, 2009 [emphasis added]:
Let me be clear, we don't have an agreement here. We have an agreement to work hard, professionally, and seriously with top level officials to get a legislative proposal before parliament if we can. I give you no guarantees that we can get there, but I know in my heart I can look unemployed Canadians in the eye today and say I’ve done my darnedest for you.
Many thanks to Redsock for gathering and posting the quotes.
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