The Liberals Are Doing A Great Job
Posted on 30 January 2010
Yes, I know the title in of itself is going to create some comments, but right now this is what I honestly believe. Really, I’m not as partisan as some people seem to believe, I have been very critical of the Liberals in the past (see Stéphane Dion) but right now, during Harper’s prorogation vacation, they are doing a fantastic job engaging the public and releasing policies on things important to Canadians.
First – Michael Ignatieff’s recent college tour. What an amazing and simple idea, engage the young vote. Yes, a cohort who do not always come out to vote in droves, but that is because we often feel that politicians don’t listen to us or care about us. Michael has proven that he cares about the young voters and is very willing to engage us in conversation. This is huge, and unprecedented. This impresses me so much.
Second – the roundtable conversations going on in Ottawa with the Liberal MPs. These discussions have covered a plethora of important topics with many different stakeholder groups. From what I have heard amazing conversations and possible policies have come out of these meetings. This is something that should be happening on a regular basis, because this sort of input and discussion will always lead to strong and well thought out public policies. I hope the Liberals continue this once Parliament comes back, and other parties jump on board.
The largest thing out of all of this, and my being impressed with the Liberals right now is that they have presented legitimate policies going forward. They, as a party, have already presented election platform ideas. That is key, Canadian’s don’t need spin or bickering like we are used to – we need productive ideas which will help Canadians, and that is exactly what the Liberal party is giving us. Michael Ignatieff is proving himself to be a strong leader right now, and I hope Canadians are taking notice, because it is the leadership he is providing his party that this country needs.
15 responses to The Liberals Are Doing A Great Job
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[...] have expressed previously my happiness about the current work the Liberal party is doing during Harper’s little vacation, [...]
And besides, Ignatieff was at Laurier for a rally a few months ago.
The Liberals only lost by 31 votes in the last Federal election in the KW area. It’s not a huge spot on the radar.
Granted, I’ve got a provincial by-election here soon, and I’m voting Lib… but only because the Con bus shelter ads are annoying as shit. I don’t actually care about the issues, just the douche factor.
The polls are saying people are angry with Harper and switching allegiances to the default “other” party because there are no better options.
Of course by election day, everyone remembers the minority parties and they do better than polled.
Ironically, I think a lot of this sits on Barack Obama’s shoulders right now; he’s having a lot of trouble getting anything concrete done. If he actually achieves some of the greatness he spouts, Canadians might be given faith that such a thing could happen here again, a la Trudeau. If he flames out—and, increasingly, it’s looking like he’s going to allow the Republicans to destroy him—then selling Canadians on hope and change is going to be an awfully tough sell.
I can’t disagree that we do have a good number of crappy politicians, but I do think we do have some good leaders in the pack. The Liberal backbench is stacked with potential leaders, but many of them are young so haven’t been given the chance to shine as a leader yet. THey will though for sure – give them time.
And I think the first step to fixing attitudes is fixing our system, people are apathetic because they feel their vote means nothing… “everyone is the same” and “my vote wont change anything” mentality. If we have a system where your vote would actually matter (too long a rant, but this can change easily) then I feel Canadians will become less apathetic. Or at least I think.
Nah… they all suck. The Libs might have a decent leader right now, but the rest of the party is still replete with career politicians.
Granted, you’ll never fix Canadian politics without fixing the attitudes of Canadians; as long as we’re satisfied with being a second-rate nation with a small man’s complex, we’ll be satisfied with second-rate politicians.
Yup, you could say that… but there is nothing wrong with pointing out that one party is actually working for Canadians while the rest either sit at home or just whine about everything. The Liberals are putting forward proposals that work. What a novel concept… I have no problem being a “cheerleader” to a party who actually wants to help this country and it’s people.
cheerleader
Colin, you HAVE to stop using the apostrophe to make a word plural. It’s driving me NUTS!!!
Grammar policing aside, I’m interested to see what comes out of that thinker’s conference. I also think the campus tour was too short. Waterloo (the city, not the university) is a huge university town, currently all-conservative (so far as the MPs go), full of tech industry – why didn’t he visit here? *grumble*
Iggy was supposed to be a smart and intelligent leader for the Liberal Party. Up until now, a lot of Canada has been left unimpressed. It seems this prorogation period may be his best chance to turn that tide if he can. (of course, the polls are saying something is working)
Haha, good call on the grammar policing. I won’t deny that I can be bad at proofreading sometimes… and when I say bad I mean I neglect to proofread. I should stop doing that.
Yes, We desperately need policies. Inspire us with concrete proposals of how a Liberal government would be different. How about policies on some the pressing issues that are now lost because of proroguing parliament, such as new copyright legislation, pension protection (in cases of bankruptcies) About funding for the arts. And what’s all this about getting tough on crime when crime stats are going down.
The Liberals could…and i stress could be doing a far better job. We have almost never had such a weak prime minister.
The problem is that the opposition also appears to be weak and lacking in direction.
The Liberals under Ignatieff ought to RIGHT NOW be reaching out to the other opposition parties and coming up with some sort of informal agreement to form a coalition.
I like his attitude…but i really want to see some policy.
Talk is cheap.
We need to see concrete proposals.