Frank Valeriote does not favour a coalition government and instead hopes Prime Minister Stephen Harper can work toward rescuing the Canadian economy.
“I believe in working toward a solution, not working toward a coalition,” Guelph’s Liberal MP said Wednesday.
Valeriote added he does not believe a Liberal-NDP coalition, with support from the Bloc Quebecois, will unseat the Tories.
Update – Here come the Cossacks to the rescue!
small typo..Guelph not Buelph
Well God bless Mr. Frank Valeriote for showing a lick of common sense and decency. Let’s hope it holds. The Liberal Party has a habit of cracking down on such things.
One down, 11 to go.
If it is true, everyone should e-mail Mr. Valeriote and thank him for standing up for Canada.
Courageous man, with some integrity. Bless him.
Apparently, in addition to Jacques Parizeau, the Communist Party of Canada has endorsed the coalition.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Hey Liberals MPs…just waiting for the first one of you to cross, nay, RUN across the floor!
It’s more than a crack, Kate. The fact that he vocalized his disdain means there’s a RIFT in the Liberal ranks. I suspect this whole coalition thing will fall apart from within the Liberal caucus within four or five days.
Apparently, in addition to Jacques Parizeau, the Communist Party of Canada has endorsed the coalition.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Hey Liberal MPs…just waiting for the first one of you to cross, nay, RUN across the floor!
We may yet get our majority…(fingers crossed)
Congratulations to this man; it won’t be easy for him, and who knows if there are any waiting to follow.
I was born and raised in Guelph, and still live close by.
He is a Liberal and all, but I’ve never heard of him doing anything dishonorable before.
I’m getting a bad feeling that this coalition is going to fail. In a couple of years it’ll be forgotten.
Had they taken over, we would almost certainly had at least two majorities after that.
thanks Rich.
Chuckling Bobby Rae will be calling him a Harperite as he so soundly reminded Iggy if Iggy didn’t come along side.
We need 11 Liberals to get sick and not vote.
But you only need 6 to switch sides….
Check out Kinsella’s site, looks like he’s not 100% behind it either. Quote:
“I don’t love it, I hate it.”
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Iggy cross the floor. How humilating it will be to watch that tape, and listen to the jokes about it. It was all they could do on cpac, not to fall on the floor laughing as they waited for that tape of Dion. It was embarrassing for everyone on that panel to watch it.
Frank the Tank spoke in response to the Remembrance Day ceremony speech by former MP William Winegard. Wild Willie, a naval vet of WW2, tore the UN and the role of peace-keepers in places where there’s no peace to keep. It was a helluva speech. Mr. Valeriote responded gracefully, not just mouthing the same old platitudes. He thanked all those who served, and those who continue to serve. Nice enough, but he also spoke directly to Winegard as a friend.
Both men impressed me. I voted for Wild Willie. I would never vote for Valeriote, him being a Liberal and all, but his stature grew for me last November 11th. His statement on the coalition increases that opinion. I still won’t vote for Frank the Tank, bit he’s earned something more valuable. My respect.
Question posed by my wife:
When it comes to swear allegiance to the Queen, what will the Bloc do?
I know they were Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition at one time, but is there a higher standard when their votes are cast for the hunta.
Perhaps that’s why it’s being portrayed as a Liberal/NDP coalition.
If that’s all there is, then it’s impossible for for the coalition to outvote the Conservative members.
Anyone else have the feeling they’re watching a sequel to Being There and the Liberals, Separatists and Socialists are installing Chauncey (the) Gardiner as the Prime Minister of Canada?
I guess the guy with the good video camera on his cell phone had to take a whiz by the time Dion got through a usable ‘take’ for his rebuttal.
I think Frank Valeriote just became the front-runner in the race for the Liberal leadership.
I didn’t leave the Liberal party, the Liberal party left me.
I emailed Frank last nite about this mess. I’m sure mine is not the only letter he received over the last few days and I told him I voted Conservative. He’s new to the party and the house. He’s a good solid family man and a down to earth guy and a christian. He cares about Canada first not politics.
You can email him here and thank him.
FV@frankvaleriote.ca
For your viewing pleasure –
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=4o0IEq_1kto
If you have a Liberal MP, email them. I emailed Joyce Murray, Vancouver Quadra. Now we have this fine fellow, a real honourable fellow from Guelph.
The floor crossers are lacing up their shoes.
ugh!!!!!
O/T
Liberal MP libel Tories — accuse Tories of paying opposition MPs to cross floor?
Has anybody seen the Martha Hall Finlay interview with Don Newman tonight (Dec. 3) around 8:40pm? I’m trying to get a hold of the transcript or *avi file, but no luck so far.
She said something to the effect that the Tories having a financial advantage actually are using that extra cash to pay for opposition MPs to cross the floor…And she said “and that’s illegal of course.”
Sorry, wish I could get the video, but it was streaming live…
Don’t MPs have to be in the actual house of commons (on the floor) to avoid libel charges?
I am not in the habit of handing kudos to a Liberal.
I e-mailed him a thank you for his courage.
There’s one honest and realistic Liberal. Will there be more?
Martha Finlay had better mind her words unless she’s damn sure of what she says. That has lawsuit written all over it.
A half dozen floor crossings would be BEAUTIFUL.
After that address by Dion, I am having a difficult time being serious about this comedy coalition. The three stooges with an entourage of adoring media and the cheerleading team headed by uber-separatist Parizeau.
I get the feeling that Frank Valeriote drew the short straw and now has to be the first one to jump off “The Good Ship Lollipop” without a parachute.
Having a whole bunch cross the floor will not happen, in fact if any do they would look like opportunists. Now if one quit the coalition and sat as an independent that is a whole different story and that seems more realistic. This seems to have so much drama going on that who knows what will happen. Although as someone who is a card carrying Liberal I am not keen on this. I don’t like the Tories and I hope Stephen Harper as gone as PM ASAP, however I dislike the NDP and Bloc Quebecois even more.
I think that Michael Ignatieff has already done the calculus and doesn’t want this Coalition to go ahead either. But having a few “lesser” MPs go first will provide good cover for him.
People need to know there’s likely no turning back for the Liberals. If they withdraw their coalition gambit, Harper and CPC will have license to ride roughshod over Grits (I hope they don’t, though, just govern well).
If they play out their gambit, and Harper gets his dissolution request (because it will be the first time in Canadian history that a party with the most seats in parliament was refused by GG), then we will have election, where CPC will only have to campaign against, or debate one party outside Quebec.
There will be no need for anyone by Dion and Harper in the English debate, with Duceppe added to the french debate only.
Maybe, Ignatieff and some other Liberals will fashion a face-saving way out of this, given where public opinion on the matter is growing (I easily swung about five people today, no effort really required). They may say something like, “well, we still believe in the coalition, but it’s not worth putting Canada (iow themselves) through this.”
Otherwise, LPC playing Quebec no limit hold em poker, and are all in, trying to convince the dealer to declare them the winner of the pot without showing their down cards.
Have they got the guts to see this through, government or destruction as a mainstream political party?
Things surely change very fast in politics, so this situation continues to evolve, but I see big cracks developing in coalition armour.
Unless, of course, they’ve known all along GG would, for the very first time in our history, refuse PM request for prorogue, proving firstly she is a Liberal hack, and secondly, causing the greatest constitutional crisis in our history.
I don’t believe she wants to, or even has the parts, to do it; but, we will see.
Nobody has to cross the floor.
They could either abstain or declare themselves independent.
I suspect there has to be at least a dozen sensible Iggy supporters who will not support the Coalition of Idiots.
Once you get one Liberal publicly saying it’s basically not a good idea it is only a matter of time before others get the gonads to speak up too, especially after Steffie’s great performance this evening.
“When it comes to swear allegiance to the Queen, what will the Bloc do?”
Supposedly that’s why they won’t become cabinet ministers. They won’t take the oath.
this makes me think of nixon with the missing watergate tapes….laughing my ass off..
Jack Layton’s stimulus package, give auto makers tons of money to make vehicles nobody wants. Give Forest industry to make piles of lumber nobody wants.
Create a union of unemplyed to stack the lumber into teepees and burn, these workers will also be responcible to destroy Ford, Chrysler and GM vehicles in demolition derbys.
Get panel of experts together to determine if air bags will be on or off.
There we have a PLAN!!
Robert W. is probably right but it make him look like a follower rather than a leader.
Just saw a replay of Dion’s speech on CTV…it appears that they have cropped the video to cut off the HotAir book in the top corner…anyone else notice that?
Also, Dion’s speech would have worked much better with subtitles.
Just saw a replay of Dion’s speech on CTV…it appears that they have cropped the video to cut off the HotAir book in the top corner…anyone else notice that?
Also, Dion’s speech would have worked much better with subtitles.
Just saw a replay of Dion’s speech on CTV…it appears that they have cropped the video to cut off the book titled HotAirin the top left corner…anyone else notice that?
Also, Dion’s speech would have worked much better with subtitles.
Just saw a replay of Dion’s speech on CTV…it appears that they have cropped the video to cut off the book titled HotAirin the top left corner…anyone else notice that?
Also, Dion’s speech would have worked much better with subtitles.
Wow….posted the same message 5 times….I think I just set an SDA record
JohnT – hit button once.
JohnT – hit button once.
JohnT – hit button once.
JohnT – hit button once.
Skip:
I did hit it once, but 5 different times
If they merely abstain, there would need to be at least 21 of them do it for the coalition vote to fail. Lib/Dip/Bloc have 163 seats in total.
They have cropped it, but the book was still visible last time I saw the video.
I was wondering where they book is. Sneaky incompetent bastards, aren’t they?
Valeriote is a signal, like the nice letter in the Cuban Missle Crisis. Just need to figure out who it is a signal from, Dion or Iggy, and how to respond.