Harper dares Liberal-NDP-Bloc to face voters

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December 2, 2008 - Stephen Harper fights for the future of his government in a heated session of Question Period.

[@BTM866]

Dion always looked like he was going to start crying at any second.

[@sdbeitel]

The harper years. The last time the words right and honorable prime minister were true.

[@mathieucaron7442]

Va chier mon tbnk

[@akhilsharma20]

True

[@mikedocherty6160]

Harper's finest parliamentary moment.

[@seroccoprime2774]

Mike Docherty He tried to get a coalition with the Bloc and the NDP when he was in opposition.

[@bestlogicmaster9723]

Anthony Serocco Mr. Harper refused to sign on to a coalition that would give the Bloc power! Lie-brals? We both know the answer. Hope I helped you here.

[@Scorehound]

I did not vote for Harper this time around, but he had a good point here. The Bloc has no business in Federal politics, and they should have no sway over decisions that affect Canada.

[@julien8548]

this is why we should separate

[@Scorehound]

@@julien8548 Separation is provincial suicide.

[@gabemossman5955]

@@julien8548 Quebec is a have-not province, that’s stupid on their part

[@devon6941]

Never understood this argument. I don't like the Bloc either but to say they have no business in federal politics is absurd to me. They have elected members in the house. Also like Layton says in the clip Harper had no problem doing the same positioning himself when he was in opposition.

[@Scorehound]

@@devon6941 A separatist party with sitting members in one province should not have the ability to decide the fate of other provinces.

[@raynus1160]

Harper destroyed those clowns. Effortlessly.

[@David578593]

Regardless of your political views, we can all agree this was one of the most exciting times in parliament in '08

[@Everybodyhasapryce]

"This government isn't ready to face this incoming crisis" Fast-forward 5 years under Harper and Canada is one of the best economic nations in the world, doing laps around almost everyone else in the G7.

[@IntelligenceMedia1]

Harold Nutsaq Really? Harper took a surplus, inherited from the previous government, and turned it into a deficit.

[@paulfoley9370]

Fast forward another few months, and our economy is tanking. Take credit for the good and you have to take credit for the bad. So much for his good economic stewardship.

[@bestlogicmaster9723]

Paul Foley Especially important when you consider the lie-brals were demanding a bigger deficit!Oh well, an inconvenient truth?

[@slightlyvisible8448]

***** No. The global financial crisis did that. Every single nation was hit.

[@Everybodyhasapryce]

SlightlyVisible Yep. And Canada has handled the crisis far better than most countries.

[@chanface]

Canadians threw away a gem when he was voted out.

[@slightlyvisible8448]

Not to rain on your parades, but Harper was right. Governments are to be formed by voters and not shady deals with separatists.

[@carbarf]

+SlightlyVisible a coalition is not a "shady deal." It's a democratic right

[@slightlyvisible8448]

***** A non confidence vote is different from a collision.

[@fdannn6926]

+SlightlyVisible Technically he wasn't right, as it is 100% legitimate to form coalitions in a democracy.

[@APPLEPIE978]

+SlightlyVisible The way the parliament system works, the ruling party only need something the the ball park of 30% of the votes to win the election. If the government was truly formed by the voters, a party with over 50% of the votes would form the government.

[@fdannn6926]

sweiland75 Liberals have promised to change the system, we'll see what happens, there was an article on CBC saying how they favour a Preferential Voting system, a system that would have given them an even bigger majority with 200+ seats.

[@damianmcpherson2488]

We need Harper back!

[@rocky1d]

Watching this years later and realizing how good we had it with Harper and thankfully that clown Dion never got in.

[@joshsomerton9700]

I like how Jack Layton tries to talk and he still talks even when he's being drowned out heckling is just another day in the Canadian Parliament I'm a Canadian by the way

[@mellowandjello]

Dion sounds like an angry French Kermit the frog. How the hell did he become leader of the liberal party at one point? Were they fresh out of actually favourable people?Harper's track record is indisputable, he will go down as one of the best prime ministers of this nation.

[@LordEdmund1973]

Later on, if the footage kept rolling, we would see that Dion becomes so worked up he is no longer coherent in English and Ralph Goodale has to take over for him.

[@daltonjanzen3382]

"One of the best prime ministers of this nation" [citation needed]

[@johnpijano4786]

No. I will not support a person who advocated for Canada to join the Iraq War

[@seroccoprime2774]

2:33 A Thomas Mulcair sighting.

[@marieaubry8125]

I miss Harper!

[@joshsomerton9700]

i think a lot of people do !

[@joshsomerton9700]

but don't worry if you are a conservative supporter there may be an election this year and the Conservative Leader could win it

[@Wald4267]

@@joshsomerton9700 they lost unfortunately

[@thatweatherman4411]

@@Wald4267 but now they have a leader that could actually bring them back to power: P.P

[@Wald4267]

@@thatweatherman4411 yes and what i said can claimingly be reverted

[@da_chosen_one2927]

I miss Steven harper

[@Littleblaza]

A superb Prime Minister top 3 of ALL time a TRUE conservative.

[@BrettLoveAndPeace]

More Canadians voted for Harpeer than Dion or Layton. That is why he is the PM and rightly so.

[@CapitalistSpy]

Imagine if Trudeau has the balls of Harper 🍿🍿

[@majortuff]

Way to go, Harper!

[@seroccoprime2774]

Dayum, this was pretty intense.

[@j2xdude]

can you let them finish their sentences before standing up and making so much noise???!!!!

[@slendii366]

Canadians made a huge mistake getting Stephen Harper out.

[@electronsd]

Yeah but stephen harper was prime minister for too long and canadians wanted a change in government

[@shanewilson8728]

​@electronsd Justin Trudeau has been prime minister far too long, and Canadians want change. According to the latest polls, Pierre Poilievre could win with the largest majority government in Canadian history. Today Canadians are far worse now under Justin Trudeau than it it ever was under Stephen Harper. Canadians are poorer and the standard of living has gotten significantly worse under Justin Trudeau.

[@slendii366]

@@electronsd that’s fair

[@leafyutube]

The speaker has a really cool job. I think I wanna be speaker.

[@Mark-du2si]

The Best PM Canada of Canada The Right Honorable Stephen Harper

[@costa1788]

No

[@slendii366]

I wouldn't say the best but people ought to appreciate the good he has done for us. Actually left office with a balanced budget.

[@BombasticLove87]

Looking back, this is one of Harpers great accomplishments.... preventing this coup. Minority governments are for the political savvy and Harper had that 100%.

[@alexanderfooy723]

While I mostly agree, a coup is “ a sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government.”. A coalition is not that.

[@devon6941]

Minority parties in a minority parliament forming a coalition is not a coup. It's perfectly legitimate in parliamentary systems. Minority governments are not considered mandates constitutionally.

[@ER1CwC]

@@devon6941 You are absolutely correct. However, the politics of the coalition were terrible. The Conservatives had gained seats in the most recent election. Meanwhile, the Liberals had lost a significant number of seats, while the NDP had gained an insignificant number of seats. So it was essentially going to be a coalition of losers. Add that to the fact that the coalition would have depended on the support of a separatist party, and that the Liberals have a very long history of being firmly federalist... It was too easy for Harper to construe the coalition as an attempt to illegitimately usurp the will of the electorate. Coalitions are only viable if they accord with public opinion, and in this case the attempted coalition simply did not. The left and center-left hated Harper, but the rest of the country did not. It would have been different had the Liberals gained at least some seats and if the Conservatives had lost seats in the previous election.

[@devon6941]

@@ER1CwC I get that's the spin but Harper's party got 37% roughly of the vote the other parties (that would've been in the coalition) combined roughly got 54% of the vote. It isn't a "coalition of losers" for elected members of Parliament to join up to form a coalition. To say that is undemocratic is a fundamental misunderstanding of our electoral system and is bluntly false.

[@devon6941]

@@ER1CwC that coalition wasn't viable because of the Bloc, pure and simple. English Canada would've punished any party that went into government with sovereigntists but to call a coalition a coup that's just not correct and it should be called out.

[@MelindaSordinoIsLiterallyMe]

Dion's English is awful 😂

[@ballfanincanada]

Come back Mr haprer. We need real leadership again

[@MikeTrainormusic]

Dion's pissed.. I agree with Harper on this one.

[@matthewgalligan2318]

Harper had his problems, but such power and love for Canadian's. I miss the concertives, best poison we have to vote in.

[@broadstreet21]

Dion looks like a typical Liberal, nervous, edgy, and determined to reclaim "what's rightfully his party's," the PMO. Layton looks more respectable and likable, but Harper still looks like the guy in charge of the whole room.

[@evanshiong3557]

It’s easy to see why during the period of 2004 to 2011, only Jack Layton and Stephen Harper were expanding their team and seating in the House while the Liberals lost the popular vote twice. Even the Bloc leader could speak better English than Dion and Michael Ignatieff was a political opportunist through and through. Really in the 2006 Liberal leadership, the top 3 candidates (Dion, Ignatieff, and Rae) all had bad baggage on their heads. Dion had not up to par English, Ignatieff was seen as opportunistic, and Bob Rae was the worst premier in Ontario’s history. Neither of them could’ve defeated Harper in 2008.

[@broadstreet21]

@@evanshiong3557 I think Wynne had overtaken Rae for Ontario's worst premier ever, but I get it. He still had bad baggage.

[@evanshiong3557]

@@broadstreet21 Stephen Harper and Jack Layton while they didn’t agree on everything, they had this one thing in common, and comment if you agree. Which is that both of their parties have not fared as well without them in charge. The Conservatives and NDP were both reduced to tiny rumps in 1993 and they spent 20 years recovering. Both Stephen and Jack were put in an effort to rebuild their party’s image after several previous failed attempts which required a new leader or, in Mr. Harper’s case, a new party. - Stephen Harper founded the Conservatives and led them through 3 elections, adding more seats each time until finally, the goal was reached when he won a majority government. - Jack Layton was elected to rebuild his party after 14 years of decline under the leadership of McLaughlin and McDonough. He won 19 in 2004, 29 in 2006, and 37 in 2008, before the Orange Wave in Quebec led him to official opposition status in 2011. Had he not died so soon after that election, he could be prime minister today. In the 10 years since Jack Layton’s death, the NDP has done worse and worse ever since and now is the smallest party in the house with official party status. The Conservative Party increased their popular vote and won 126 seats, but Andrew Scheer didn’t make the cut. And Erin O’Toole’s at the same level at this point in the campaign that Scheer was in 2019, and he’s not well liked in Tory battleground Alberta.

[@broadstreet21]

@@evanshiong3557 I agree, and they have some more I common. They did cae about the ordinary people. They got along great on a personal level. But I like your observation. Layton wasn't an overnight shining star like Trudeau. He was a down to earth guy that just put in his efforts, went slow and steady. Harper was similar, just a little less warm. I think the NDP will win a lot of support this election. Singh has been reaching new supporters over TikTok. And O'Toole manged to produce a compelling platform, so he'll win more votes.

[@evanshiong3557]

@@broadstreet21 Just because they’re up in the polls doesn’t mean they’ll win. I mean look at Justin - we gave him the largest majority government in Canadian history in terms of # of seats added and 90% of his decisions have done lasting damage to Canada. I actually used to respect him and criticized the Harper campaign’s “just not ready” slogan for trying to distract us from the growing sentiment that Canadians wanted change. Despite all of the corruption, broken promises, and high taxes, Canadians keep voting for him NOT because they like the Liberals - it’s because they were scared of an Andrew Scheer government.

[@F1yin6M0nk]

I laugh when I hear that people think that they voted specifically for Harper... Fact is you voted for a single MP, and the largest group of MP's willing to work together get declared the governing party. That's just how it works here. If a coalition can truly work together, then there's nothing un-democratic about it. The majority rules again, and that's what our government is based on. I also laugh when Harper says he'd never work with "The seperatists", when he did so himself in 2003... haha

[@MapleSyrupPoet]

Mr. Harper ...great Canadian leader ...we miss him ❤👍

[@daniayrtursunbecov7706]

Yeah

[@tomgibson6801]

No

[@alexm8154]

Despite the stigmata of the brainwashed, Harper is the best prime minister this country has had. History will show this.

[@monsterhobbiesonlinestore]

Man Alex...it SURE is showing NOW!

[@goldbrick2563]

Why does Canada have separatists in its federal govt? Canada is such a weird place.

[@LordDavid04]

Because some in Quebec want to separate. Having Provincial separatist parties haven't worked, so the Bloc was created in the early 90's to supposedly "protect" the interests of Quebec. This is what makes Canadian politics quite interesting.

[@andrewwake350]

this was shocking to watch on TV

[@seosamhv]

Might be rough if the CPC win this election with a minority and have to back track on this issue in order to secure support of the house with the Bloc.

[@ODogYT]

The CPC won a majority again until 2015😊

[@themisjustitia2994]

Remember when the PM had balls?

[@DawnOfDoom12]

Dion squealing in his French accent... smh

[@annegeradamaclellan8226]

You save me from evil justin Trudeau really miss you Sir Steve Harper my beloved belated father so proud of you 👏

[@harps1974]

Harper for PM 2019

[@juliansmith4295]

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

[@TruztNoI]

Scot harper we can get Maxine Benier.

[@truenorthcanadian5628]

TruztNo1 I kind of wish he was the party leader

[@a.salmon8193]

Scot harper I wish.

[@Chev427BB]

And then the 2011 election showed how much people wanted the Liberals in power by handing the Conservatives a majority government and giving most of the seats that didn’t go to the Conservatives to the NDP.

[@ollieoable]

Love this guy !! What a country we could of had with him still in power !!

[@tsewongchazotsang2332]

He is the best prime minister. I miss him.

[@Metrot]

OH HURD DAT!

[@garythornbury976]

Mr Harper government was the best pm since Mr Diefenbaker

[@ClassicalJack]

(PART 1) > To our American friends, this is the situation in Canada as it would relate to you guys. Say there was a political party made up of people who did not want to be a part of the USA that was in your guys congress and senate......

[@tannercarter9493]

we miss ya Harper!!

[@AndreNDP]

So...were the Tories somehow more elected than the larger group of elected people that opposed them? We don't vote for Prime Minister in this country and never did.

[@jayman105]

16 people disliked this video because they are Bloc separatists!

[@ajs41]

This was interesting. It's based on the British House of Commons but they do things that don't usually happen in the British chamber, such as standing up and clapping after each contribution. Clapping is not allowed in the British House of Commons.

[@douglasenviro]

I just wish they showed Duceppe in the video. He would just be laughing all the way! He has GOT to be loving this!

[@1Amiel1]

Awesome debate! We need more of this! Btw, anybody know who that young female representative is that is sitting behind Harper? Left side.

[@ArkansasPL]

Helena Guergis

[@saculanna]

Dion looks like a deer in the headlights and most of the time I'm straining to understand what he's saying. As for Layton, his own party starts applauding long before he's done speaking...no doubt to help mask the nonsense spilling from his lips. I have to agree; Harper won this battle. But then he had no real competition.

[@franklyspeaking8335]

Dion sounds like Kermit the frog.

[@ckdoll]

If Dion gets on a bull and rides it for 8 sec sucessfully infront of the people in Calgary I will support his party in the next election.

[@kirkman667]

As he is a frog, it only makes sense that Dion sounds like Kermit.

[@bjtkyo]

The children in the background need to pipe down in the House. I love how the biggest debate in Canadian politics right now is about forming a new government 7 weeks after an election. If this coalition wants to help Canada, they should collaborate and come up with a better economic proposal; not put all their energy into trying to seize power.

[@jordanisrandom]

A prime minister for the people. Amazing.

[@pierremunro]

What a turn around eh...

[@ThePsychoReturns]

@mikefastener I don't give a shit how much more likely he is to be right. A statement isn't correct just because a smart person makes it. Newton's genius didn't prevent him from believing in the philosopher's stone. Ptolemy's genius didn't prevent him from taking astrology seriously. You're arguing from authority. A basic logical fallacy.

[@ThePsychoReturns]

@mikefastener Scientists don't get huge grants to propagate anything. They get grants for scientific progress. I'm not angry at you. I'm merely annoyed by your conspiracy theories and ignorance of the scientific process.

[@Jeffmartindale2007]

Stephane Dion sounds like Kermit the Frog

[@LordDavid04]

Nah, Kermit the Frog speaks better French.

[@EricCartmanez125]

how right winged was harper

[@CacaLauncher23]

lol, separatism has like 30-40% support in Quebec right now. the only reason we vote Bloc is because, like other provinces do, we have a malaise with other options. no one cares about seperatism anymore, not even the Parti Quebecois, yet here it is again, the center of canadian politics. wtf!?

[@dingers5days]

Has parliament ever been so heated?

[@BrettLoveAndPeace]

Why should the losing parties be able to join forces after an election? Canadians didnt vote for a NDP/Liberal/Serperatist coalition government. They voted the Conservatives in as a minority government and that is what things should be.

[@murrayandru7527]

trudeau cowars because Steven did such a GREAT JOB when PM>

[@irishgodfatherchris]

@mikefastener the taliban is not an organised army like say Germany was in 1939 they're guerilla fighters who won't give up no matter how many of them you kill, its the old you kill one and two take his place

[@broadstreet21]

In hindsight, it would have been better for Harper to let this vote of confidence go forward, let Dion become PM, then watch him fail so miserably that when he calls his own vote of confidence, the NDP or Bloc may have to concede to vote down the government. The Conservatives can then sweep back in with a majority.

[@broadstreet21]

Actually, I read somewhere that Harper wanted to do just that, let Dion take his job, so that he fails badly. That would flip him back to office eith a majority. But his advisors warned that the voters are short sighted, that if he lost power, they would hold a leadership review, move to replace him as leader of CPC.

[@mohammadiqbal6688]

Per fa vore no way tu per Che anesari modificare tanto tipu pagina draghi euro mission poco finito Ancora manca no fare cazino per Che Italy parlamento dentro tantissimo ruzina ce coesto bigonare piliscono

[@galileocan]

You may not realize this, but at the 3:40 moment, 5 MPs signaled the Speaker to call paramedics, as they believed that Stephane Dion was about to have a stroke.

[@dingers5days]

What????

[@UnionStayshyn]

Bye bye Harper! You got power mad and lost it. Check out my video response to the lame Tory ad on my channel.

[@christopherpeter978]

His finest moment

[@Kevin-gf6eu]

One of the greatest and most underrated PM ever

[@jedirock]

Harper does not look well, his face looks puffy!

[@mohammadiqbal6688]

Adesso bigonare intarpol lavorare loro cercare global chi Cosa sinifica

[@homer30]

the conservative is so right wing that it cannot collaborate with the left oppositions. The problem is that the right wing conservative only achieved a minority government so collaboration with the left like NDP is unavoidable. The coalition is formed as a protest to conservative's failure to work together with the opposition. The coalition however is wrong without nationwide mandate for Canadians elected a conservative PM.

[@ajs41]

So you think Canada should have its fourth election in the space of four and a half years? Surely there has to come a time when you stop having elections and just accept that whichever party is the largest should be the government, even if they don't have an overall majority.

[@0truckmafk]

I dont mean to talk badly about the late Jack Layton but fuck! does he ever look a lot like Joseph Stalin! I could never trust Jack but couldn't put my finger on it. Today it all makes sense to me. But this was great parliament!

[@tedflowerpot6468]

The bloc was not legitimate and Harper was bang on in fighting this issue

[@NecessaryDialogue]

5,205,334 voted for Harper of the 23,401,064 registered voters. Thats about 23% of Canadians behind Harper. 32.5% voted for the the liberals, NDP and the Block. 40.9% of Canadians did not vote. For once we could use a few lessons form the United States of America. We need a leader who is honest, and has the best interest of the people at heart, and not big business, Bush and Neo-conservative politics.

[@VidWatcher-v4j]

Harper was one of the best Prime Ministers in Canada's history. Surprised to see rub and tug Jack Layton in this video. I wonder if he and Olivia Chow were still living in subsidized housing paying $800 a month with a combined salary of $120,000.00

[@shanewilson8728]

Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba are fed-up with the liberals and NDP coalition . Liberal and the NDP couldn't care less about the prairie provinces. The liberals and the NDP treated the prairie provinces like second-class citizens.

[@0truckmafk]

Man! everyone in parliament: Let people friggin speak ffs. whats with all this shouting while someone has the floor?

[@jwwelder07]

I want to have a smart PM again!

[@ThePsychoReturns]

@mikefastener I'm not going in circles. You keep making the same faulty argument, so I keep debunking it with the same fact. Those "lies" are supported by all of the evidence.

[@Philip_Bialk]

Every political party has their own mandate. The Rt.-Hon. Prime Minister and The Honourable Leader of the Liberal Party were speaking for what they believed was right and just for the Government of Canada in Right of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

[@jmay35801]

Oh man this was fun lol

[@ThePsychoReturns]

@mikefastener A statement isn't a fact just because Jonathan Swift said it. Smarter men than him have made greater errors.

[@davidaames3298]

i miss jack. i love canada!

[@Zorn27]

We elected a Conservative Government, not a coalition of communist separatists!

[@ThePsychoReturns]

@mikefastener No, I'm arguing that you shouldn't argue that Jonathan Swift is right simply because he is Jonathan Swift.

[@YvesStOnge]

Love him but he was a bully

[@ThePsychoReturns]

@mikefastener Yeah. But like I said, intellectual brilliance is no guarantee against just being dead wrong.

[@mohammadiqbal6688]

No bigonare te coalitions

[@FoxTreatment]

This coalition is undemocratic. The Conservatives won 143 seats. The Liberals and the NDP won a combined total of 114. They require the support of separatists in order to govern, but they emphasise the fact that they are not part of the coalition because they know many Canadian will not want too much of their influence. There is no 62% majority. I am so tired of these power struggles. I think we need a new election process so people with new and intelligent ideas can make important changes.

[@glenntaylor2002]

Bloc supporters want it both ways. They vote for parties which continue to threaten the stability of the country, while at the same time expressing indignation when anyone calls them 'separatists'. Sir/madam: whether you vote for the Bloc to blackmail the country, or whether you do so to advance the cause of separation - in either case you are a separatist, and an enemy of this country.

[@ScotterS69]

If have never put much thought into our government. It's always been so boring. But if a party is in power, with the NDP and Bloq having majority power of that party, I will consider moving to the United States. In good economic times, the NDP can put a province into serious debt. Consider what they can do in an economic crisis. Consider how poor Quebec's tax and economic system is.

[@ThePsychoReturns]

@mikefastener Right. But not a 100% chance. He could be wrong no matter how intelligent he was.

[@yirphd]

Some of you people are amazingly ignorant about how PARLIAMENTARY democracy works! Harper tried to engineer the exact same thing back in 2005 and failed. All of it is legal and democratic. I was no fan of Dion but I am impressed with his performance here. And he's absolutely right when he says that EVERY MP was voted in! For Harper to say it's "undemocractic" makes him a total hypocrite. It was certainly fun to watch this video! One man with nothing to lose and one man with everything to lose.