POPCORN NEWS

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Gaining Control of Senate- by ST.. 09/01/09

Brian Mulroney and Karlheinz Schneiber Probe Delayed- by ST.. 07/01/09

Stephen Harper's Minority in Trouble- by ST.. 01/12/08

     No longer will Stephen Harper be threatening elections to the opposition parties for acceptance to policy matters that are but only secondary.  Prime Minister Stephen Harper has decided instead of putting his confidence in votes with the chance of being defeated, he is going to try to fill up the Senate’s seats with Tories (Conservative representatives).  Already in the Senate, there are 105 seats where 58 belong to the Liberals, 35 Conservatives, 3 progressive Conservatives, four independents and one independent New Democrat.

     Going somewhat against his promise which was not to pick senators until the chamber is reformed- Stephen Harper made 18 appointments last month and is planning to fill seats until next January so he has a majority in the upper chamber. With less emphasis on confidence votes, there is expected to be a stronger opposition since they won’t have much to worry about.  Plus, the plan will face a disapproving and may have a negative change in economy when Parliament resumes which is January 26^th.  On this day there will also be the Throne Speech and the swearing-in of new senators.  The main subject on the Conservative’s agenda will be economy.    

     In the case that the Senate plan doesn’t work and the Conservatives lose, the Liberals and the NDP with the support of the Bloc Québécois are ready to move on with the coalition government but the polls show the idea as not very popular.  If the economic package the Conservative’s present has the large stimulus that the opposition parties have insisted on, then it would be hard for the oppositions to justify bringing them down.       

     Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney admitted that in 1993 he accepted $225,000 from Karlheinz Schreiber (German-Canadian arms dealer) to promote German-designed light armoured vehicles to be built in Canada.  Schreiber claims that $300,000 was the total for the payments and that Mr. Mulroney was to promote these vehicles to the Canadian government whereas the former Prime Minister says that he tried to get support from foreign leaders whose country might by chance buy the vehicle.

     The probe has been dragged for a while now and on Wednesday, Mr. Justice Jeffrey Oliphant (the main person in the inquiry), confirmed that with unexpected technical problems and other problems, they won't be able to meet the deadline of mid-June.  Officials had wished to hear the 1^st public testimony by next month but then because of technological problems and other problems such as document disclosures, it is being pushed to late March.  As requested, the inquiry's mandate has been changed to December 31, 2009 and it will be 25 months since Prime Minister Stephen Harper wanted the probe ready.  Once ready, it will decide upon what will be the resolution to this situation (ex. someone will owe someone money etc.).

     Almost 2 months ago, Canadians went to the polls and gave their vote either hoping things would stay the same and maybe the conservatives would have a majority or maybe we would even see a different leader running our country.  Supporters were disappointed that as a result the conservatives have a minority and tax money was wasted.  On the other hand, people voting for the other parties were given hope that the Harper government would probably not be staying.  Even with that in mind, there was a dispute whether Liberal leader Stéphane Dion would leave politics because the liberals had lost many seats.  Yet recently the news has discovered that may not be the case for now at least.

     The Liberal party has agreed to a deal with the NDP which is supported by the Bloc Québécois to form a coalition government.  This coalition government is thinking of going long term and it is not just for the economy.  They need support from the Bloc Québécois since with only the Liberals and the NDP parties they will not have a majority in the House of Commons.  The leader is none other than Liberal leader Stéphane Dion.  But when Stéphane Dion leaves his position as leader of the Liberal party, the new leader will have to decide whether to continue with the coalition.  With a Liberal- NDP coalition, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is on a lot of pressure to make sure his minority government doesn’t fall.  They still have options that will help to keep their government running like announcing a stimulus package during this week but this any many others are only rumours.  This might be the first time we have a change of government without an election and we would have a coalition government after 91 years.  All of this depends on the Governor-General’s descision since her job is to make sure we have a running government with a hard working prime minister.

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