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We Don’t Need A Coalition To Make Government Work

At his first media scrum since his re-election on Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau thankfully quashed the idea of any kind of coalition, formal or informal with any of the Opposition parties in the next parliament.

Fact is, the government, even a minority government doesn’t need to marry itself to another party’s political agenda to survive.

What they must do is govern wisely and responsibly and there’s a pathway for the Liberals to do that.

I fully expect that the NDP  and the Greens and possibly even the Bloc will collaborate with the government on climate change and probably some kind of pharmacare program, and it would surprise no one if the Conservatives opposed both ideas.

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Conversely, as the government moves forward with the Trans Mountain  expansion and the ratification of the new NAFTA deal, both of which the Prime Minister reiterated support for yesterday, it would be foolhardy and likely political suicide for the Conservatives to oppose either of those initiatives .

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There will, of course, be acrimonious debate on all these issues , but  nobody said these guys had to like each other, but they do have to work together.

A Minority government can be effective, but only if all the players abandon their vitriolic  partisan attitudes and put their country ahead of their own political self interest.

Federal party leaders Green Party leader Elizabeth May, Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier, Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanchet and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh pose for a photograph before the Federal leaders debate in Gatineau, Que. on Monday, October 7, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick

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