Who Are You People and What Have You Done With the Liberals?

Spine, something that the Liberal party hasn't had in a long time, is now back in Ottawa and it's threatening to finally end this sad chapter of Canadian history.

When I heard after the election that the Liberals were going to actually be an opposition instead of a rubber stamp (and I understand their reasoning for being so) I thought "Yeah, and if someone believes that I've got this bridge in Alaska to sell them." But it turns out to be true.

Perhaps we will see a Prime Minister Dion after all, which would be great news for the vast majority of the country that didn't vote for the Conservatives. And I think this can only be a good thing for the Left. It's time for us and the NDP to stop fighting each other and start working together. It'll be hard, there's a lot of animosity on both sides, and I'm not a fan of Jack Layton, but I do think the NDP have the best interests of Canada at heart, and if we can keep them on a tight fiscal leash we both can do a lot of good for Canada.

However, there are two dangers to this plan. #1 it risks elevating the NDP to a prominent player in the country, which if we can't merge with them would spell permanent Conservative majorities. And number 2: The Bloc. It's dangerous to give a separatist party so much power.

I think the best plan would be to take control, start working to fix the economic mess, come at it intelligently like only we Liberals can, and then subtly engineer our own defeat and hopefully win a majority mandate.

But regardless, I think Emperor Harper is starting to realize he can't govern as if he has a majority a la Joe Clark. I expect him to do anything to keep his hands on the reigns of power, you think the David Emerson thing was seemly, you ain't seen nothin yet. And remember, he wasn't even desperate then.