Thursday, December 04, 2008

Keep Meeting.

I swiped the following from the good folks at Pogge who in turn hauled it out from their comments and slapped it on the front page. The author, Eric Finley, has some very sound advice for our coalition kids, should they decide to continue working in the interest of the majority of Canadians. Thanks Eric, hope you don't mind seeing your words spread around.

Keep meeting.

To the coalition: Keep meeting.

Parliament has been prorogued. So you're not meeting in an official capacity. But nonetheless meet as if you were not prorogued.

Find a site. Pay for it yourselves, and be explicit about that. You're citizens meeting to speak. But in so doing, keep up the business of Parliament. Debate. Draft bills. Hold (unofficial) committee meetings. Vote... on memoranda of understanding.

Show the country, its citizens, and its investors that while you do not argue with the legality of the delay, you see no need to go on vacation in this crucial economic time. Assume (without even explicitly saying it) that in January when Parliament reconvenes, Harper will fall, the coalition will form government, and the memoranda of understanding and drafted bills will be dealt with, bang-bang-bang, because you have already hashed this out.

Invite the Conservatives to join you. If you get some momentum, you might get no few disgruntled members willing to bet that Harper's fury will not control their lives.

Let the Conservatives take an extended vactation. Shrink the proposed vacation period instead, to mark the severity of the economic need.

Make it plain that you do not dispute Her Excellency's right to consent to her nominal first minister's request to prorogue, and that you respect her for making a difficult decision in uncharted waters. Open each session with a consistent, well-crafted adaptation of protocol which is sufficiently distinct that it does not trespass upon Parliament's formal privileges... but that nonetheless shows clearly that you do this out of the uttermost respect for the Queen, the Governor General, and the Canadian people.

Repeat frequently that you're just trying to get work done now, so that things can happen fast when the doors unlock in January. It can't be trespass upon the privileges of government if its level of formality is that of a caucus meeting.

Be completely transparent. Defeat the smoke-filled rooms meme. Heck, hold it in a bar, if you can find one big enough.

The media will come to you. I can think of no more efficient way to stretch your advertising dollars than a bold, newsworthy stroke like this.

If you do this, I will donate to the limit of my ability. I will write letters to the editor praising your actions. I will take my four children and go door to door. In Edmonton. In December.

Pass it on.

KEEP MEETING.

5 comments:

liberal supporter said...

The next President of the US is continuing to have meetings and hammering out details in advance. Our next government should too.

They could even meet. Obama can't meet with other governments yet, and neither can the coalition, but two future governments could and should.

Anonymous said...

Haha.. The liberals are falling apart.
Dion? Shit man.
Layon?
What were they thinking??!

Rev.Paperboy said...

An excellent proposal!


and Blair, be a good lil' wingnut and fuck off already will you? It isn't the Liberals that are falling apart, Harper just had to go crying to Mommy get Parliament closed down so he could hold onto his job and at least two of his Party's MPs are campaigning to replace him. The Cons will not win another seat in Quebec in your lifetime. The writing is on the wall for Harper and his merry little band of Republicans disguised as Canadian conservatives.

liberal supporter said...

Thanks for stopping by, Blair. We can always tell when the CPC is batshit scared when they send the trolls out in force. As expected, they know they screwed up with this temporary coup and as usual think that screaming louder will make people obey. Your presence confirms this.

We won't get fooled again.

Ti-Guy said...

Everyone who's called Blair is obnoxious.