After a few days of hype and what is euphemistically called speculation by serious journalists, there is a CBC national radio news story tonight from Caroline Dunn about the fuss over Bill C-43. (Sorry there's no link to it.)
While Caroline is very quick to point out there is nothing official yet, she does give two reliable quotes, one Liberal and one Conservative, that point to...wait for it... a deal on Bill C-43 that would allow the right bits of the bill to pass, the difficult ones to go somewhere else and for everyone to avoid an election this spring.
Scan back over these e-pages the past couple of days and you will likely find at least one spot where I either predicted this outcome or strongly suggested it as a sensible option. Certainly I never subscribed to the Great Evil Liberal Conspiracy being foisted by local worrywarts on radio-call-in shows here in Newfoundland and Labrador.
When you take a step back and look at the whole schlamozzle, first raised by Blarney The Dinosaur from The Southern Shore last Thursday or Friday there really never was much chance of an election anyway.
The Liberals may be in the best spot in months but they wouldn't be too anxious to force an election or appear to cause one to occur.
The Conservatives, for all their bluster, have some problems like everyone else in politics, so they weren't about to be seen to smash money for Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, plus cash for seniors, children and just about everyone else all over what they were saying early in the crisis was the word "toxic" being omitted from part of the bill. Even in the grander version, the Conservatives weren't about to be portrayed as electioneers by stomping on an environmental initiative...
at the expense of grandma's' OAS cheque.
Nope.
Everyone knows that taking cash out of a voter's pocket is no way to start an election.
Anyone who was planning something else just blinked so loudly blind people could hear the eyelids slamming shut in Ottawa.
