Thursday, November 27, 2008

No right to strike for civil service?

Ho-boy, hey didn't pre-leak this one did they?

From CP coverage of the Conservative economic update:

In two controversial moves, the Tories plan to suspend the right of public servants to strike for two years, and kill the taxpayer subsidy for political parties.

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JF said...

Ok... so they obviously want another election. There was always a possibility (Albeit remote) that Jack Layton might allow the slashing of public subsidy but there is no way in hell he can support something that restricts labour rights.

Justin Beach said...

Making sure things keep flowing in the right direction

Barcs said...

I don't know JF.

Layton has made no secret of the fact that he wants to replace the liberals as opposition and make it a 2 party system with them as the second party.

And given that the funds raised by the liberals and the NDP are roughly the same in past years...

I think Layton the strategist will be hard pressed to not vote for the plan (despite the political acting today).

Crushing the Liberal party serves the NDP as much as it does the CPC.

Add to that the current financial situation that parties are facing. Some put the liberals at 10m in debt awaiting rebates from EC and a story today said the liberals had to use the very subsidy we are talking about as collateral for the loans in the last election (and I am sure the greens/bloc are in the same boat).

What bank in the current financial market in the world is going to loan money as freely as they did a couple years ago to fight an election? Especially with the proposal on the table that if the Tories are reelected and enact it the liberals lose 1/2 their funding.. the bloc and green over 80%. Sound like a good credit risk?

I am not sure which party, the NDP or the Liberals, will fold, but I am fairly certain we will not be in in an election. And my money is on the NDP voting with the government and spinning that they extracted a pound of flesh for doing it.... the right to strike part of the proposal being tossed out the window perhaps??

Barcs said...

On a side note I also get a kick out of watching all 3 opposition parties and the greens spend an entire day talking about this and only this while simultaneously complaining that it is only there to distract us from the real issues,... which apparently aren't important enough to rate any exposure or discussion while we are distracted talking about this unimportant measure which is only there to distract us..