The Liberals, so my tribe thought, handed the New Democrats a precious gift shortly after Stephane Dion was elected red-team leader.
The Liberals started supporting Stephen Harper's government. They did this in many ways. Explicitly, in private committee meetings and on selected votes (for example, by voting to support scab labour during industrial disputes). And implicitly, through a long chain of abstentions on numerous key votes, each potentially defeating the Conservative government.
The New Democrats hoped this practice, continued under Michael Ignatieff, could be used to persuade some Liberals to switch their votes. Every conceivable communications device was deployed to make sure Canadians knew that the Liberals were supporting the Harper government in the House.
What did the orange team learn?
They learned that when Canadians aren't looking for an election, that means they aren't looking for opposition parties to vote to cause an election. And so, fun as it was to torture the Liberals with their numerous votes and abstentions (especially in all-candidates meetings last election), it turned out that nobody outside of Ottawa was watching, and nobody cared.
In hindsight, a far more telling criticism of the Liberal opposition is they voted to keep Mr. Harper in office 79 times in return for nothing -- no negotiated gains for Canadians on any front.
So the big excitement in Ottawa yesterday was that this fall's employment insurance bill might be speeded up and -- ha HA! Mouhahaha! -- that means (if adopted promptly) that opposition parties will have to make up their minds about a coming Liberal confidence motion on its merits at the time. Without reference to whatever is happening to the EI bill.
Oh those clever Liberals, gearing up to attack the orange team for, possibly, doing what they themselves did 79 times. But if failing to vote to trigger an election is a really bad thing, are the Liberals 79 times worse, having done so 79 times themselves?
Perhaps that gives the New Democrats license to fail to vote for a federal election, say, 39 and a half times. Then the New Democrats will only be half as bad as Mr. Ignatieff and his band of happy warriors.
The truth of the matter is that nobody is watching any of this. Nobody cares. If they did, the Liberal and NDP votes and seat count would be reversed.
So sure, speed up the EI bill (provided it really includes what the government claims it does). And speed up the confidence vote. Let's get this over with, and then (assuming unforseen events don't intervene -- like a helpful game-changing blunder by Mr. Harper) perhaps our Parliament could turn its mind to something Canadians care about.