11.22.2011 04:36 PM

“Tim Hudak forced an unnecessary election seven weeks after the last one.”

It’s a wordy slogan, to be sure, but we’d get a comfortable majority with it. And, unless I’m wrong, Ms. Horwath would be leader of the Opposition. Not Mr. Hudak.

His exchange a short while ago with reporters, which was something to see:

Reporter: You’d vote against it as it stands right now, if there’s no amendment you’d vote against it as a caucus?

Hudak: That’s right.

Reporter: Tim, make it clear, if you vote down a Throne Speech, does that trigger an election? Make it clear to the voters.

Hudak: Well you know what? It depends on the other parties and how they vote…But you’re asking me, you know, can I support…

Reporter: I’m not asking you if you support it. I know you don’t support it. But, if you vote down a Throne Speech, does that automatically trigger an election?

Hudak: It depends on how the other parties vote…But you know, you’re asking a very simple question…

Reporter: Tim, technically if the NDP votes against this Throne Speech and so does your caucus, are you bringing down the government? Is it a confidence vote? I mean…

Hudak: You know what? [Inaudible.]

Reporter: If you vote against the throne speech, the government has the chance to fall. Is that a chance you are willing to take right now?

Hudak: You know what, what, it’s up to Dalton McGuinty to respond to us…

Reporter: No, it’s up to you, you’re the one voting against it.

Hudak: You know, I told you…

Reporter: You don’t need to take that chance right now?

Hudak: I told you where our votes are parked.

12 Comments

  1. Mike Foulds says:

    When I spoke with you at the hotel on Saturday we both were surprised by his letter stating get ready for an election next year….who is this guys handler? How does he get the chance to make these gaffes?

  2. TheSilentObserver says:

    I have to ask, what was the official Federal Liberal response, if any, to all the rabble under Harper’s two minorities, especially his second, that Dion and Iggy were seeking to force an election? I’m not trying to be rhetorical here, I’m just wondering about whether this is a worthwhile concern of the Ontario Libs or some bush league “coalition” style fear mongering.

  3. bob murdoch says:

    your hotmail might be hacked or something. i just got an email from you and all it is on it is a site for male enhancement-unless of course you think i need that and you were just trying to help me. if so you are right

  4. Michael S says:

    Hudak and his Tea Party gang wins by losing. This way he goes out swinging, and the rump that remains will be mostly a Randy Hillier caucus. It’s a way to kill off the former PC caucus.

  5. Tiger says:

    Bah, y’all are just trying to get Hudak to pull a Dion or Ignatieff, and start eating himself on confidence votes.

    Makes the opposition leader look weak, and leads to a majority.

    Nice try.

    • Ed says:

      I’m pretty sure he’s doing that all on his own.

      • Tiger says:

        Whatever Hudak’s doing right or wrong, if he started rolling over for McGuinty, he’d be finished.

        • Warren says:

          Funny, I don’t recall Conservatives saying that when the fed Libs regularly threatened to defeat the government.

          • Tiger says:

            Of course not, when it’s an official comment by anyone in a partisan job. Because the immediate counter-move is to throw around blame for threatening an election.

            But I’m actually on record saying that the Liberals were being idiots in the last Parliament:
            http://tigeronpolitics.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/if-i-were-leader-of-the-liberal-party-of-canada/

            Quote:

            If I were in Michael Ignatieff’s shoes, this is what I would do.

            This is what I would have done in 2007, if I were in Stephane Dion’s shoes, and it’s what Bill Graham did do in 2006 — which shows who actually has brains in the Liberal Party.

            I would make a simple statement, both in Parliament and out of Parliament.

            “I hold the position of Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition. It is my duty to provide an alternative to Her Majesty’s government. As the alternative, my party will not be supporting the government on any confidence motion, including all budget and supply bills. It is a minority parliament, yes, and all members of parliament have to decide whether they prefer Mr. Harper’s agenda or mine.

            “It isn’t irresponsible to be the Party of No. It’s my job.”

            I would say that, and I would stick to it. I would force Jack Layton or Gilles Duceppe to back the PM — thereby pushing his legislative agenda to the left — and I would stand ready to fight an election at any time.

          • Warren says:

            And you’d say and do that when your party was broke, your caucus is against you, and the polls show that you would get creamed?

          • Jason Hickman says:

            (In response to WK@12:54pm:)

            Knuckling under time and again on confidence votes from ’07 to ’11 didn’t make the federal Liberals any less broke, it didn’t keep “senior Liberals” (some of whom were probably caucus members) out of Jane Taber’s columns, and it didn’t do much for the LPC in the polls, though. (I will premptively take your point that Iggy’s volte face in September ’09 actively hurt the Liberals, but maybe that wouldn’t have been the case if the Libs had made their bones by following the Tiger’s approach from Day 1.)

          • Tiger says:

            And Harper got his majority anyway.

            Had Ignatieff or Dion showed some spine at the start, I don’t think the polls would have gotten so bad for them.

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