Playing Games With The Throne Speech

According to the Liberals:

CP says that Prime Minister Stephen Harper believes the Liberals are so desperate not to go to the polls they would rather accept a throne speech that states Kyoto targets can't be met rather than trigger a election. The throne speech is a confidence motion that would force an election if voted down.

McGuinty, the Liberal environment critic, says he doesn't know what will be in the speech, but that he has heard that the prime minister may try to force Canada to abandon Kyoto altogether.

"We have heard rumours that the prime minister is going to try to use the throne speech to take this country outside of the Kyoto Treaty," said McGuinty.

Which, I might point out, he has a right to do. But then McGuinty goes on:

"We simply cannot believe all of this effort and all of these games being played by the prime minister. We're just scratching our heads and saying why isn't he moving forward in a positive way to protect the environment for Canadians as opposed to playing these procedural games? I think most Canadians are getting very, very tired of this," said McGuinty.

But if the Tories move away from Canada's Kyoto obligations, Liberal Leader Stephane Dion will be placed in a tough political position. He could face ridicule if he votes for such a throne speech because of his party's well-publicized support of the accord.

But there are also reports that the Liberals may find a way to oppose the speech or elements of it without forcing the government to fall.

McGuinty did not comment on the speculation, but he said the Liberals are exploring several options to deal with potential outcomes from the speech.

It's quite simple, really.

If Canadians are getting "so tired" of this posturing by Harper, then McGuinty should recommend the obvious if Harper indeed does do this - force an election. Of course, they probably really don't want an election based on the recent byelection results and Dion's already bad poll numbers.

And "procedural games"? As one of the commentators pointed out on the CTV thread, the Liberals signed the Protocol in 1998, and then did nothing for 4 years, rendering the targets completely unattainable. Those are the real procedural games.