$14.6 million or a promise to meet

From the ediotrial desk of the NDP:

What can you get to prop up a government?
Wed 17 Jun 2009
New Democrats delivered billions, Ignatieff delivers talk

OTTAWA – After long hours at the negotiating table, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff walked away with nothing of substance in exchange for his continued support of the Harper government and its failed policies.

“When I sat down with Paul Martin in 2005 and avoided an election by negotiating a new budget, I delivered for Canadians,” said New Democrat leader Jack Layton. “New Democrats got $4.6 billion in new investments in housing, education and transit. Today, Michael Ignatieff got a working group in exchange for his ongoing support of Stephen Harper.” In 2005, New Democrats turned corporate tax breaks of $4.6 billion into $1.6 billion for affordable housing, $1.5 billion for post-secondary education, $900 million for transit, $500 million for foreign aid and $100 million for pension protection.

In 2009, Michael Ignatieff could only manage a “blue ribbon panel” on Employment Insurance with limited scope that won’t report until September. “This working-group talk-fest is cold comfort to the 1.5 million unemployed Canadians dealing with a deeply flawed EI system. Ignatieff did nothing to fix EI, nothing to create jobs, nothing to stimulate the economy.”

“How did the Official Opposition fail Canadians so badly? Did Michael Ignatieff get
steamrolled or does he just agree with Harper’s policies?

14.6 million versus a promise of working group.

Chantal Hebert has looked into the emptiness of Ignatieff's stance:

All Michael Ignatieff has really wanted since Monday is a fig leaf to
justify his continued support of the minority Conservative government.
That minimalist quest is the only possible rationale for the absence of clarity of
his original position, a feature whose main (and only) merit has been to give
the Liberal leader the latitude to clutch at whatever straw may come his way,
courtesy of the Prime Minister.

Months after the NDP and the Bloc raised the EI issue, the Liberals have attempted to take it over as their own. It has now become the only issue that the Liberals seem willing to take a stand on.

As NDPers, there is no problem with the Liberals stealing our good ideas. We are used. We are just disgusted when they steal the idea and do nothing with it.