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Political drama engages, outrages Canadians across the country

Canadian Press Article online since December 2nd 2008, 0:00
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The drama unfolding in Ottawa with all the intrigue of a well-crafted political thriller has riveted Canadians across the country - both political junkies and citizens who turned out in such anemic numbers for the federal election barely seven weeks ago.
While some premiers weighed in Tuesday, Canadians weren't leaving the talking to the politicians.
Talk-show phone lines buzzed with a seldom-seen fervour and media websites groaned under a flood of feedback.
"Wow. Never have I seen more regular people upset at politicians," a reader from British Columbia wrote on the Globe and Mail's website, which was on track for a record-setting day Tuesday in terms of the number of reader comments.
It seemed most everyone - those furious at the hijacking of democracy and those blissful at democracy working exactly as it should - had a strong opinion.
"This is what bullies in a schoolyard do when they can't win a fight fair and square - gang up," read another post on the Globe's site.
Daniela Scoppa, a producer with radio station CJAD in Montreal, said the phone lines were jammed for close to three hours during their Tuesday morning talk show.
"People are just appalled. They can't believe that any of this is going on, they're disgusted by it," Scoppa said.
"That's the word most people use: just completely and utterly disgusted."
Putting his feet up on his desk after a program in which the phones lit up like Christmas trees, Bill Carroll, a veteran host at Toronto's CFRB radio, called the high-stakes machinations in the nation's capital a "dream" issue for talk shows.
"This is like a once-a-decade kind of story," Carroll said.
"You don't have to work to get phone calls ... the story comes to you. The passion is out there."
The volume of calls was probably at least 10 times greater than usual, he said, adding people are both "engaged and enraged."
"They're just like children," said Marilyn Reid of Fredericton.
"We voted a government in and they should have just let things go."
Barely 60 per cent of those eligible to vote actually made it to the polling booths for the Oct. 14 election that saw Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservatives returned to government with a bulked-up minority.
The historically low turnout prompted many analysts to despair at voter apathy and fatigue - a malaise that appears to have been swept aside by political theatre at its best.
There was full-throated battle rhetoric in the Commons on Tuesday.
"You get your mandate from the Canadian people - not from Quebec separatists!" Harper thundered at Liberal leader Stephane Dion.
Dion responded by quoting the prime minister's own words from 2005, when Harper as Opposition leader said avoiding confidence votes in the Commons was a "'violation of fundamental constitutional policies and principals in our system."'
Spectacle aside, however, there were those who just want the situation settled, especially amid the roiling economic climate and gut-wrenching market volatility.
"While I am giddy at the sound comeuppance being dealt to Mr. Harper, I can't help but think that enough is enough," one person wrote on the Toronto Star's website.
The country's premiers seemed to share that view, with Saskatchewan's Brad Wall saying it's time for political leaders in Ottawa to get their heads "out of their kilts."
"I do not want my Canada beholden in a formal way to a veto from separatists," Wall said Tuesday.
"If that's the cure to the symptoms, to the problems we saw that were brought on in part by the federal government, certainly then the cure is worse than the symptoms."
Speaking at the Ontario legislature Tuesday, Premier Dalton McGuinty urged an end to the political crisis, saying the feds need to get on with dealing with the economy - particularly the floundering auto sector - and do it fast.
"Let's get back to the table," he said. "Let's see what we can do together to support the auto sector, not just for the good of Ontario but for the good of the country as a whole."
McGuinty was adamant the province would not get involved in the political intrigue, saying only that when Ottawa is ready to talk to the province, the talk will be about the auto sector.
A Facebook group inviting people to join a daylong party of sorts in cyberspace billed as "Stephen Harper's Last Day as Prime Minister" had send out almost 30,000 invitations - with nearly 8,000 accepting as of Tuesday afternoon.
The virtual event is scheduled for Dec. 8, when the government could first be toppled.
Then there's the "I Don't Understand Parliamentary Democracy and I'm Outraged" Facebook group.
The reaction was not only virtual.
A website, rallyforCanada.ca, is trying to organize protests in cities across the country Saturday against opposition coalition plans to form a government with the help of the separatist Bloc Quebecois.
People, it seems, can barely wait for every twist and turn of the political plot.
"Whenever we do put up a new headline, you can just see the traffic come in," said Trevor Wilker, news editor at Yahoo Canada.
The CBC's Jeff Keay said the broadcaster's website was getting "huge volumes" of commentary.
"This is probably as high as anything we've seen before," Keay said.
"We've cracked 4,000 (comments) and that's probably several orders of magnitude higher than what we'd get for a normal story."
Jim Sheppard, executive editor of globeandmail.com, said the website had a record number of comments on Monday, with Tuesday's response likely even more intense.
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Flora Chan

Comment online since December 2nd 2008
It's so so unbelievable! One more example to prove that
canadian politician can be as dirty as those in undevelop
countries. Canadians voted Stephen Harper to be their
PM,please listen to their voice and show respect to
their decision. After all, this is a so-call democratic
country.I want the Coalition to know that I am extremely
angry with them !

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