As I’m sure you’ve heard or read by now, we’ve got an interesting situation unfolding here in Canada. Essentially the Liberal Party, NDP, and Bloc Quebecois have joined forces to propose a new Liberal-NDP coalition government that would replace Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party of Canada. You can learn more about the sequence of events at Wikipedia.
Back in September, I wrote about Canadian Politicians on Twitter. My guess is that our political leaders created accounts in reaction to what was happening south of the border, particularly with Barack Obama’s campaign. So I’m not surprised that none of them have updated their accounts with news about the issue at hand, with the exception of the newly launched LiberalHQ account.
Canadians are definitely talking about the news on Twitter, even if our politicians aren’t. At the moment, the hashtag #coalition is the second most popular topic according to Twitter Search. Other hashtags being used include #canadarally, #canada, #democracy, and #libndp.
Click here to see all related tweets.
There are also a bunch of new accounts being created to cover the news. You can follow both @yes_coalition and @no_coalition if you like!
In addition to some really thoughtful, funny, or otherwise interesting comments from fellow Canadians, you can find links and other resources related to the coalition on Twitter. Here are a few of the things I found:
- http://isharperprimeminister.ca
- http://www.makeparliamentwork.ca
- http://www.defendourdemocracy.ca
- http://causes.ca/coalition
- http://www.62percentmajority.ca
- http://www.canadians4democracy.ca
Also found via Twitter – the news made The Huffington Post today! You’ll find dozens of other news articles, but one that caught my eye is the Globe and Mail’s list of Harper’s ten options.
I’m sure even more interesting things will surface over the next few days. The mainstream media will do a fine job of covering the news, but they can’t match the speed of Twitter. If you want to track the situation in real-time, keep Twitter Search open at all times!
MasterMaq's Blog 
Here is another link found on Twitter – excellent summary of how we got into this mess by the Yarn Harlot:
http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/archives/2008/12/03/what_is_happening_in_canada.html
I have spent a lifetime on the outside viewing in.In the past 20 years or so I have watched at the foolishness of our so called leaders and have wondered why we allow parties to nominate and elect our Premieres a person who has the power to silence the party thereby in fact making the member elected by the people sterile in that he/she cannot fight for his constituents.
Unless we as the people get up off our fat ass and demand that we have a government whose sole purpose is to the benefit of the people and not to the self serving of what we presently see today with Politicians who’s only raison d’etre is to accumulate a pension.
Further in a country as rich as Canada there is no reason for the poverty that exist with our working poor’ our homeless and our disabled and Seniors. Any person in this country not making $24,000.00 per year is poor in fact they are desolet. In june 2009 immigration suggested that the loans granted to immigrants be picked up by the government at an immediate cost of over 38 millon dollars and at an average of $10,000.00 per new immigrants, Of course there is no doubt that this will pass as it guarantees the party in power votes at election time since human nature is to associate things that are good to individuals as coming from the people who hands it out not the people who supply the benefits.
The time has passed for people of my generation unless all Canadians get up and demand a financially just society for all Canadians and not just to the wealthy If we do not raise our voices and demand that all Canadians share in the wealth of the country. Then may the gods help our next and future Generations with minimum wages far below poverty line old age pensions that deny dignity to our Seniors or even no pensions for the future generation.
The results of guaranteed incomes has already been proven to be attainable by the savings accrued from Welfare disabilty EI.along with the wasted manpower used to run these progams, with very little effort a system could be in place whereas Canadians would not only live in the most beautiful country in the world but also the most envied and just country in the world