The Jobless Get Shafted Again

Election or no election. Threat and counter-threat. Bluff and counter-bluff. The whole thing ended up going nowhere. Just a lot of posturing. The jobless ended up losers.

Not one blessed cent more for the 638,000 out of work in Canada.

In the end, Harper and Ignatieff set up a committee of six political notables – three from each party -- to spend the summer in air-conditioned rooms studying unemployment.

The set-up virtually ensures a hung committee. Likely nothing will be agreed upon and they’ll have to start all over in the fall.

Harper and Ignatieff made sure the Bloc Québécois and the New Democrats, were not included on the committee.

Ignatieff is afraid of the Bloc -- his only real opposition in Quebec, and Harper is scared of the NDP in the rest of Canada, particularly in Ontario.

Harper took another cheap shot at the NDP. He couldn’t resisit, referring to the NDP as “le Bloc Anglais.”

Nobody reminded him that NPD “Anglais” are twice as bilingual as his own Reformers.

And oh yes, the Liberals get something else - the right to choose the topic to be debated on one more day in the Commons in the fall. Big deal! Some victory for the jobless.

So much for the Great Summer Action Plan for the jobless. They get a committee and a debating topic.

Didn’t Denis Coderre, the High Prince of Exaggeration (John Baird is the King) stand on his feet last Tuesday in the Commons and uttered those immortal words: “the jobless will starve to death this summer?”

Strong words. Actually the unemployed will not all starve, (they still have welfare) but they will be getting squat from the politicians in Ottawa. On that they can count. “Let them eat committee!”

Later our academics will write long, complicated theses on why most of our jobless don’t even bother voting.

Ignatieff wantedHarper to reduce the eligibility for employment insurance benefits to 360 hours worked in a single year from the current 460 to 720 hours.

But Harper has another plan. He’s prefers long-term, on-the-job training for jobless workers paying out money directly into the hands of employers. For Harper that’s a lot better giving cash to the jobless.

Harper couldn’t resist a cheap shot at the jobless. He said reducing eligibility requirements to 360 hours would only encourage workers to quit their jobs and get jobless benefits.

Sure, a guy’s going to quit a steady job so he can go on 55% salary for 36 weeks with welfare staring him in the face at the end of the line. Real smart.

Ignatieff was hardly any better. He showed he’s made of the same stuff as his predecessor, only a little less so.

There will be no election because Ignatieff doesn’t have the money to win an election, and Harper doesn’t have the votes to win a majority. A no-win both ways.

So the pair made their coalition and decided on no election. At least it saves us $380 million in election spending this summer.

Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe was quick to see Ignatieff as the loser. “You don’t bluff when all you’re holding is a pair of twos,” Duceppe said. “When Ignatieff looks in the mirror tomorrow he’ll be seeing Dion.”

The New Democrats were mean. They called it “The Dionization of Ignatieff.”

Still the politicians had a wonderful, fun-time all week, hammering each other with glee, and it was a nice way to end the session before a three-month holiday until Sept. 14.

Ah, the life in Parliament.