Bingo
TORONTO – Count us out, says Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak.
Hudak vowed Tuesday his party will vote against the government’s Throne Speech, and risk sparking another election.
“We have a serious jobs crisis in Ontario and we have a serious spending crisis in Ontario,” Hudak said just moments after Lt.-Gov. David Onley wrapped up the brief speech outlining the minority Liberals’ agenda for the new session.
“Today’s Throne Speech meant that (Premier) Dalton McGuinty failed to address either of those big problems. There are no new ideas today. I’m deeply disappointed.” …However, he downplayed the prospect of a sparking an election so soon after voters went to the polls last month, saying the Liberals have the last word.
“I guess that ball is now in Dalton McGuinty’s court,” Hudak said. “But I’ve been very clear from the beginning — if you want Conservative votes, you need to address the spending crisis in Ontario and the jobs crisis.”
Hudak’s bravado comes with a safety net — New Democratic Party Leader Andrea Horwath suggested her party’s 17 votes were leaning towards the Liberals.
Hudak’s early decision to declare he’ll vote No Confidence keeps him out of the box Bill Graham, Dion and Iggy spent 5 years in.
That’s slightly unfair to Bill Graham, who wasn’t so dumb — it was the Bloc that passed Harper’s first two budgets. But it’s analytically correct: the Official Opposition, loyal or not, must oppose.
Otherwise, it becomes ridiculous.
Really? This seems like an excellent example why we should require a “constructive” vote of non-confidence, which would actually require inter-party cooperation without the drastic and constant threat of an election.
Threatening to tank the government is constructive enough. If they don’t want to be torpedoed, they can make adjustments. Building in a structural requirement to be constructive (i.e. removing the threatening prospect of actually going back to the polls) merely ensures that the unusual—stripped of its capacity to wound—will become the usual.