I just know office morale is about to tank...

[robkelk]

...because of the http://www.cbc.ca/money/story/2008/11/2 ... updat.html]economic update that th Finance Minister tabled in Parliament today.

The important bits:

• They're holding wage increases to public servants (including MPs and senators, which helps blunt this annoyance) to 2.3 per cent for last year and 1.5 per cent for each of the next three years (we've been negotiating a new contract for slightly over a year, and my union's been asking for roughly double that - not that I ever expected we'd get what the union asked for);
  
• They're bringing in legislation to prevent us from striking until 2011; and
  
• The other person at my level in my group is the building's shop steward.
  

Never mind that any raise in this economic climate is a good thing. Never mind that we still have jobs. Never mind that (to the best of my knowledge) my union's never actually gone out on strike. I just know I'm going to hear about how heavy-handed the bosses are, and not just from the obvious union folks...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Epsilon]

I'm far more pissed of with them deciding that this whole "Obviously in this financial crisis the one thing Canada can not afford is democracy."

One the other hand, if they government does force this issue and the opposition does oppose it like they have pledged to, we'll get a chance to fix the
mistake we made a few weeks back.

--------------------

Epsilon

[Ayiekie]

The sheer goddamn crassness of their removal of the party subsidies (a miniscule amount of the budget) to bankrupt the Liberals and the Bloc (and hurt everyone
else) is breathtaking. I seriously cannot believe even Harper had the gall to do that. Hopefully it never makes it through the Senate. That IS what we have one
for, unless Harper goes the Mulroney route and just appoints more senators to give him a majority.

[Epsilon]

Harper backed down.

---------------

Epsilon

[Epsilon]

But that
isn't going to stop them.

-------------------

Epsilon

Interesting times...

[robkelk]

Although even that won't necessarily trigger an election. It http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/11/28/fed-govt.html]looks like we may have another http://www.canadahistory.com/sections/d ... ngbing.htm]King-Byng event. (For those south of the 49th parallel, that's a turnover of power to another party without going to the polls. This requires a minority government being brought down by a non-confidence vote and a coalition of at least two parties in the House of Commons to take its place, because the party coming into power has to show it can muster a majority of votes in the House. It's only been done that once in Canada if I recall correctly.)

This would suit me just fine. We just had an election, and it had the lowest turnout for a federal election in my memory. I doubt we'd get anybody other than party partisans out to vote if there was another poll so soon, and I suspect that would pretty much guarantee a Conservative majority...

(Oh, and I was right. I did hear one relatively-long rant about all this in the elevator today.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Ayiekie]

And in finale, Harper and the Cons back away about as hastily as
they can without tripping over themselves.

Meanwhile, they promise there will eventually be economic stimulus, instead of just typical spending-cutting (whatever your stance on government spending, less
of it will not do a thing to fix the current economic crisis). I honestly find it quite astonishing that now twice the trained, disciplined economist Harper
has shoved his foot in his mouth. I would have expected him to handle this with a lot more aplomb, even if not necessarily in a way I approve of. Got too big
for his britches, I guess.