One Year Ago

Flaherty to axe subsidies to political parties in fiscal update: sources

The Conservatives are poised to eliminate the public subsidies that Canada's five major political parties receive, a move that would save $30 million a year but could cripple the opposition.

Sources told CBC News and other media outlets Wednesday that the subsidy cut is one of the key elements of the fiscal update that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty will present Thursday in Ottawa.

And, with that, the first domino fell, setting off two weeks of absolutely political pandemonium in Ottawa. So, for those nostalgic for a less simpler time, here's my recap of just what went down a year ago:

November 26th: With a recession looming and Canadians losing their jobs, Stephen Harper decides the best way to turn the situation around is to...go for the jugular. In these tough economic times, opposition parties are a luxury we simply cannot afford.

November 27th: All hell breaks loose.

November 28th: Harper pulls the changes to the public financing rules, averting a messy showdown...or not.

November 28th: Harper postpones confidence votes and opposition days. But this is way different than when Paul Martin did it. Really.

November 29th: The Tories strike the anti-strike legislation from the fiscal update and announced a January 27th budget.

November 30th: The Tories pull a Grewal and tape an NDP conference call hinting at a secret NDP-Bloc deal.

December 1st: John Ivison announces that Michael Ignatieff will lead the coalition government. His sources weren't wrong, they were just ahead of their time.

December 1st - a few hours later: The coalition leaders meet and sign an accord, with Dion as leader. Hey, who invited Gilles Duceppe?

December 2nd: Tory attack ads begin airing.

December 2nd: "Separatists, traitors, betraying Canada, separatists, power grab, separatists, they didn't even have a canadian flag behind them!"

December 2nd: Michaelle Jean cuts her vacation short...again.

December 3rd: If you'd told me a week ago that a webcam video would force a politician to resign, I would have guessed you were talking about Maxime Bernier. Alas, Dion's address to the nation arrives late, out of focus, and with the production values of a Tory attack ad.

December 4th: After forcing the PM to sit through a two and a half hour slide-slow of vacation pictures, Michaelle Jean agrees to prorogue Parliament. After all, confidence in the House of Commons is like the stock market; you haven't lost money until you sell, and you haven't lost confidence until they vote.

December 6th: Are you for democracy? If so, there were several competing ways to express your support for democracy...and to voice your displeasure over what you thought was the worst thing to ever happen in the history of Canada - regardless of what specifically you thought that was.

December 8th - morning: Just over three years after winning the leadership, Dion resigns...again.

December 8th - afternoon: Dominic LeBlanc drops out and tosses his support to Michael Ignatieff.

December 8th - late night: Some people wanted 137 Liberal MPs and Senators to pick the next leader. Others wanted 68,000 Liberals to. The National Executive splits the difference and enfranchises a couple hundred party officials.

December 8th - later night: Did landing on CNN make this crisis important? No. Did landing as the number 3 story on google news make this crisis important? No. This story became important the minute it got the lead on the Daily Show.

December 9th: Ready to Roll...over. Bob Rae drops out of the race, handing the crown to his old roommate, Michael Ignatieff.

Also
48 hours in 14 seconds
My uneasiness with the coalition
What If History: Martin Prorogues
How the Grinch Prorogued Parliament

Taking your cousin to the prom, and other coalition analogies

The death of the coalition I can live with. But the death of coalition analogies? That's like, like...well, I can't think of what that's like, but I'm sure these pundits and politicians could:

Don Newman (Monday): "The NDP are like that student who made a prom date in March and now, come May, he's not really sure that they're still going together."

(Monday exchange on Newsworld)
John McCallum: "We're not identical twins."
Suhana Meharchand: "But you could be first cousins, right?"
Thomas Mulcair: "It's a marriage of convenience."

Chantal Hebert (Monday): "But now that it has been let out of the bottle, the coalition genie will not vanish into thin air."

Chantal Hebert (same article): "To make their coalition work in the current House of Commons, the NDP and the Liberals had no choice but to force it into a parliamentary straitjacket whose straps lay in the hands of a third party."

Chantal Hebert (still the same article): "What could be a creative manifestation of the parliamentary system will become a politically forbidden fruit."

Jeffrey Simpson (Tuesday): "Like a bad one-night stand, it was regretted almost immediately."

Jeffrey Simpson (same article): "It was, therefore, a marriage of three..."

Jeffrey Simpsons (still the same article): "Since then, he has brandished the coalition weapon as though it were a wet noodle."

Aaron Wherry (Wednesday): Jack Layton sounds a bit like a 16-year-old who just got dumped by his girlfriend.

Chronicle Herald (Thursday): “Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff blew up the bridge that bound him to the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois and dug a tunnel to the Tories instead.”

Chronicle Herald (same editorial): “It was a cattle prod with which to force Stephen Harper to massively intervene in the economy.”

Chronicle Herald (still same editorial): “The coalition was also a pitchfork with which to ward off Mr. Harper’s partisan scheming.”

Chronicle Herald (yup…same editorial): “It was nothing but a wobbly sawhorse.”