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Conservatives issue thinly veiled ultimatum to Ignatieff

by albertacowpoke | July 24, 2009 at 05:48 pm

97 views | 24 Recommendations | 10 comments

Prior to the Summer Break of the Canadian Parliament, Michael Igantieff Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada gave Prime Minister Harper, Conservative Party, a set of ultimatums.

The center piece of the ultimatum was Employment Insurance (EI) Reform. His ultimatum warned that the Liberal Party would bring down the government if it didn't comply.

Canada has a minority conservative government which requires the support of at least one other party to pass legislation or to defeat any non-confidence motions. The other two parties in parliament, the New Democratic Party and the BLOC Quebecois have no itention to bolster the conservative government.

The Liberal Party has recently gone through a couple of leadership changes and has not had the funds in its party coffers to match the Conservatives.

Prime Minister Harper and Michael Ignatieff met prior to parliament going on summer vacation and emerged from the meeting having agreed to form a bipartisan committee to come up with EI reform.

Mr. Ignatieff has been pushing to qualify for EI after completion of only nine weeks work or 360 hours, in order to collect EI for one year. The present system calls for 420 to 700 hours to qualify depending on the Region in Canada. This system was introduced by a former Liberal Government.

Pierre Poilievre a Conservative Member of Parliament, a member of the committee said that the Harper Government would never accept Ignatieff's proposal. The cost for this change would require a massive deficit or an extensive tax increase.

The present system is based on regions.

This should make for an interesting session in parliament next fall? Are we up for an election? the Liberals and Conservative run head to head according to recent EKOS polls.

OTTAWA -- Conservatives have issued a thinly veiled ultimatum to Michael Ignatieff: Drop your proposal for easier access to employment insurance or there'll be no election-averting deal on EI reform.

The Liberal leader is advocating a single national standard of 360 hours of work to qualify for EI. That's less stringent than the current regime, which requires from 420 to 700 hours of work depending on local jobless rates.

But Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre, a member of the bipartisan working group struck last month to negotiate an agreement with the Liberals on EI reforms, says the Harper government will "never" accept Ignatieff's proposal.

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Amy Judd

at 18:32 on July 24th, 2009

Some food for thought while Harper enjoys his summer...

albertacowpoke

at 18:35 on July 24th, 2009

It will make for an interesting fall.

158

at 18:36 on July 24th, 2009

Canada used to have a distinct political system.

Now Canadian politics are almost the same as US politics.

albertacowpoke

at 18:55 on July 24th, 2009

The main reason is that Liberals in combination with any other party could bring the government down, but haven't. Personally I think a minority government with a third party holding the balance of power would be the ideal.

I agree now we have the Liberals who can bring down the government anytime they wanted to because neither of the other two parties, NDP or BLOC Quebecois will support the Conservative government. The BLOC might if it is advantageous to Quebec. The BLOC Quebecois is a regional party, that only runs candidates in the Province of Quebec.

In order for a Party to win a majority government they need Quebec and Ontario. The Liberals lost their favour in Quebec over the Sponsorship Scandal, which is a long story. The Conservative Party was making inroads until their arrogance and lack of knowldedge how important culture was to Quebec made cuts to culture. They are meat in Quebec now, at least as long as Mr. Haper is their leader.

sara star

at 19:06 on July 24th, 2009

Well if SH can't work as a team player, he will be in trouble.

albertacowpoke

at 19:18 on July 24th, 2009

He could be in trouble, I.m not sure though that Ignatieff is making many friends either. His ultimatum prior to the parliamentary break was pretty was pretty limp.

We need to get some politicians that are honest with us and not those that make promises they know they can't keep. To qualify for EI after just nine weeks for a whole year amounts to welfare, so why not just call it that.

The notion that we have different qualifying period across the country is misguided at this time of high unemployment and that should change to align the rest of the country with one qualifying period.