Panorama

Congratulations go out to all of the Liberal, NDP and Bloc MP’s for working on a plan and a coalition government that 60 percent of Canadians voted for last month.

I am far more comfortable with the words over the last couple of days of Liberal leadership contenders Michael Ignatieff and Bob Rae, along with comments made by Liberal MP John McCallum - who really should be Canada’s Finance Minister.

Their words have been about creating a plan to deal with some of our current problems. They are words of consensus and nation building and co-operation. Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe has a lot experience in working co-operatively with other parties in order to look after the people of Quebec and sure enough some of the things he has achieved for that province have served us all well across our great country.

In dark contrast the noise that Prime Minister Stephen Harper was making on Friday, November 28th made him sound more like Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Venezuelan president Hugo Chaves and New York’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg. All these men figure it is in everybody’s best interest for them to stay at the helm and guide their countries and city through current economic problems.

The Prime Minister thinks it is better to ignore democracy in this country because he alone knows what’s best for Canada. I’m not talking about the political party subsidies either. What Mr. Harper is doing now is no different than what he has been doing since 2006 - ignoring the majority of Canadians. What’s different now is that we have an Opposition party that is finally starting to show some backbone.

Prime Minister Harper is learning, maybe! That Canada is a democratic country governed by the most MP’s who can join and work together to deliver plans and results that the majority of Canadians want. Its called a parliamentary system.

Mr. Harper clearly isn’t acting in the best interests of Canadians at the moment.

So I hope that the 165 Liberal, NDP, BQ and Independent members of parliament will keep working for Canadians.

And I also hope that the Prime Minister and his 143 minority Conservative Party members will choose to work with the other 60 percent of Canadians.

If not his likeness may become part of the Prime Ministers’ Portrait Gallery sooner than he would have liked.