Friggin' Liberals

Here's what the opposition Liberals are up to on several fronts. You wonder where they're coming from sometimes.

Terrorism at home
Although they originally introduced the act, the most Liberals not supporting the renewal of the anti-terror legislation. Granted, it did have a sunset clause, but this is perfect timing kids! Right at the time when the Saudi faction of Al Qaeda said they should attack Canada's oil industry. Oh, no, that's okay, it's been getting attacked by Liberals since the early 80's!

Senate Reform
On Senate reform, there's a bill in the Senate right now that sets renewable 8 year term limits. Stephane Dion wants it to 12 to 15 years with no renewal. Prime Minister Harper is open to that, but Dion is against elections, because once again, same old excuse "we'd have to open up the constitution". But what Harper is suggesting in his proposed legislation is that provinces can have non-binding senate elections, that the Prime Minister will seek the will of the provinces and appoint their choice. We've done this before, people! While I believe the most important "e" of a triple-e senate is "equality", progress is better than no progress on an issue that's been dragging its ass for oh, what, 160 years?

Kyoto
Back in May 2006, a Liberal MP introduced a private members bill which recommits the government to the Kyoto protocol and commits them to implementing a plan 60 days after the bill becomes law. It just passed last night as the Liberals teamed up with the Bloc and NDP. The Liberals did nothing when they committed us to this protocol (without parliamentary approval, I might add). They had no plan, so now they're painting the Conservative government into a corner. This has nothing to do with how much the Liberals believe in saving the environment. It's pure political football and the football is Kyoto (I wish it were Dion's dog). Hypocrites! And they know it!

What's interesting is the government appealed to the Speaker that this private member's bill was out of order due to it being a money bill, which a private member cannot introduce. But Speaker Milliken said that the chair cannot determine from the bill how the government chooses to implement it, so the bill stands. Fair enough. But what the Speaker is saying then is that essentially, the government doesn't have to spend any money on this. So it really doesn't have any teeth. Environment Minister John Baird calls it "a joke". I agree. Not only that, but so are the Liberals' hypocracy. Even their own deputy leader admits that we can't achieve the measures in Kyoto.

So already, environment groups are threatening to sue the government if it doesn't implement the unattainable Kyoto accord. Will the Liberals call a vote of non-confidence on the government? But wouldn't that be admitting to themselves that they didn't get anything done so they're now putting the blame on the Conservatives for their own ineptitude?

Election Junction
As a result of this, there's a wiff of election fever in the air. Without the budget even being released yet, the Liberals are poised to defeat it. Nice. Real nice. Way to work within parliament guys. All Stephane Dion has as an argument is "They're right wing. Canadians are moderate." Geez, can't you come up with something better? Or is it "difficult to make priorities" Stephane? "Not fair?" Well, too bad. Canadians should expect more from the opposition rather than just opposing for the sake of opposing. Two years ago, the opposition Conservatives voted in favour of the budget. Granted, no one wanted an election at that time.

So the question is, do the Liberals really want to have an election? I'm going to say, no. They're not ready, nor will they ever be to "go back to power" if that's all they want, rather than doing the right things for Canadians and actually getting things done.