Canadian Coalition Government

Prime Minister Harper Apologizes to Canadians

By Sam Mooney ⋅ December 4, 2008 ⋅  Email This Post ⋅  Print This Post ⋅ Post a comment

I wish

Stephen Harper – the speech he never gave

“Good evening.

I owe all Canadians those who voted for the Conservative Party and those who didn’t – an apology.  I really didn’t understand how concerned Canadians were about their economic prospects and believed that they would be content to wait until the New Year for our economic plan and budget.

The reaction to my our fiscal update took me completely by surprise.  It was just an update.  I admit that there were a couple of items that could possibly be interpreted as being petty and ideological but I do rule govern Canada and thought I knew what was best.

When I heard that Mr Chretien and Mr Broadbent were negotiating a coalition agreement between the Liberals and the NDP you could have knocked me over with a feather.  The Liberal Party is in disarray, waiting for a new leader, how could they possibly consider governing the country?

In hindsight I have to admit that we reacted badly.  We should have immediately approached the opposition parties with a committment to consult with them regularly and to heed their advice.  We should have shown the Canadian people that our concern is for them.

Instead we decided to do whatever we could to hold on to power, focusing on our best interests rather than those of the country.  We raised the issue of separatism, always a hot button, which served to polarize Canadians and to cloud the issue. We talked about back room deals.

We said that Canadians didn’t vote for a coalition without acknowledging that they also didn’t vote for a majority Conservative Government.  We implied that a coalition government was unconstitutional.

It’s past time for me to admit that I lost sight of the people and was only thinking about staying in power.  A coalition government is constitutional.  It may work, it may not.  If the government loses the confidence vote on Monday I will go to the Governor General and ask her to approve a coalition government.   Before that I will meet with the caucus and if they tell me I should step down as leader for the good of the party and country, I will do so.

I now realize that Canadians gave me a second chance to be Prime Minister and I threw it away.  I apologize.”

Oh, don’t you just wish…