Wow, the media is really determined to make it to Harper’s annual Christmas Hot Tub party. This time it’s Don Martin doing the dubious honours. In an unbelievably biased, factually lacking, clearly unknowledgeable piece about the westminister system or even how our government works editorial, Martin writes about the coalition of a majority of parliamentarians (You know the parties that were supported by far more than 50% of the electorate’s votes from the last election) as if it’s a unholy coup by Hades himself. Remarkably sounding a lot like Bill O’Reilly:

Giddy opposition party leaders have decreed nothing will stop them from toppling this government next Monday to create the first governing coalition in almost 100 years, a 30-month, three-headed, Liberal-led monster bonded to New Democrats and Quebec separatists by four pages of policy duct tape.

Wow, so having the majority of parliamentarians work together and actually try to get things done is apparently equivalent to Cerberus. I didn’t realize that cooperation was such an evil thing.

This means an electorate that cast a third of its votes for the Conservatives will have their representation replaced by a hodge-podge of lowest common denominator policies produced almost overnight by parties leaning left and toward leaving.

Yes, because clearly getting a third of the votes is all that should be needed to run a country dictatorially. Apparently Don Martin voted for the Conservatives, because he sure thinks that one-third is far more important than the two-thirds who outright rejected him. Hell, even just the NDP-Liberals earned more votes percentage-wise than the Conservatives. However, discussing this as if it is a proportional system is completely pointless and misleading unless your goal is to avoid pointing out that the Conservatives did not win a majority, and in fact won a minority government. Therefore, in our parliamentary system, they are not guaranteed to run the country.

That ensures there will be a fury in the land, particularly in the West and specifically in Alberta. Even if New Democrat rookie Linda Duncan of Edmonton becomes the province’s token cabinet minister, replacing the five Alberta Conservatives in power now, the frustration of seeing electorally legitimized power seized by Toronto-based Liberals partnered with separatist forces in Quebec will be revolt-worthy in the West.

It is not the fault of our parliamentarians that Albertans did not vote for their parties (short of Linda Duncan.) At the same time, it is not the fault of Albertans that their own MPs seem to be refusing to work with coalition members. True, they may not have the reigns of power, but we do have a representative democracy, and the Conservatives are free to work with the coalition as much as they are to sit on their hands in corners complaining that the Canadian parliamentary system is unfair. Blaming a majority of the duly elected representatives for the Conservatives flaws is petty and clearly spiteful.

It circumvents the public’s Oct. 14 election verdict for no good reason, given the government has capitulated on every grievance their opponents spotted in the fiscal update. This makes it a personal putsch, not a rational rebellion.

Yes, because when the bully lets go of my collar and stops beating me because my friends have arrived, I should clearly be okay with it. It’s not a personal putsch, it’s a response to 4 years of abusive policy by the Conservatives in a minority government.

Stéphane Dion is about to get the ultimate do-over to answer this question: Who actually won the last election?

Well, let’s see. Harper got ~37% of the vote, and a minority of seats, while the Bloc, NDP and Liberals got well over 50% of the votes and a majority of seats. If the Conservatives were willing to work with the other parties — like you are supposed to during a minority government — they would easily have gained the support they needed to run the government. Instead, they chose to behave like they won a majority and screw the 60%+ of Canadians who didn’t vote for them.

The majority has spoken and they have said the Conservatives are not the government.

Regardless of how much Don Martin desperately wants them to be.

1h