an understatement. That he wants to take away the right to strike of certain federal workers is so much liike Bush, and the non-unionized Departmet of Homeland Security, which just happens to contain all of the former unionized federal agencies. Could it be that Bush is more subtle than Harper? The amusing part is that he's trying to pull these things off while he's a minority party. Bush is a smooth operator compared to this guy.

obviously can be a good thing, especially when those parties actually oppose.

I caught a bit of this on CBC last night, but I didn't know what all the excitement was about. Thanks for the news. This is interesting and exciting. I'll have to live through you guys vicariously to get an opposition party fix. :)

This is really wonderful news for Canada. Harper is really scary, and yes very comparable to Bush. The NDP are the true progressives in Canadian politics (they were instrumental in us getting national health care back in the 60s) so that they will be in the government will be a very good thing and push the Liberals to the left (our capital-L Liberals are an inherently centrist and sometimes even center-right party but Dion is one of their more progressive members so that's good too).

The BQ is kind of a wild-card of course but they have said they won't actually work for Quebec separation for the time being (most Quebecois people don't support it) so they're really just a regional part right now and not looking to destroy Canada.

And Harper saying this is an undemocratic coup is just total BS as well considering that 62% of Canadians did not vote for his party and he is far to the right of what most Canadians want. The opposition has every right in the world to do this and should have done it a couple of years ago actually in my opinion.

but he isn't entirely stupid. Been following this in the blogs and newspapers, fascinating to watch the jockeying around. There's some speculation that Harper has deliberately provoked this crisis now, anticipating that without a majority he would lose the House's confidence at some point any way. Canada is headed into tough economic times and some of the problems, especially in the Prairies, are all but intractable. Claim is that Harper and the Cons want out from under the challenge and are more than happy to let the coalition take the blame for not relieving economic tough times. After the coalition falls apart in 18 months, as it may, there will be a new election and the plan is for the Cons to ride the public’s anger then to a true majority.

Make sense?

although the last time I checked, you only get to remain Prime Minister so long as you command the confidence of the House of Commons. Demonstrating that right-wingers the world over are strangers to irony, Harper conveniently overlooks the fact that his entire tenure as Prime Minister (both before and after the October general election) has been at the sufferance of the Bloc Québecois, which always could have turfed him out and prompted the Governor General to ask the Leader of the Opposition (Paul Martin, then Stéphane Dion) to form a government. The tacit arrangement between the Bloc and Harper's Tories has been the proverbial elephant in the room ever since Harper became Prime Minister with nowhere near a majority in the Commons, but the Canadian Establishment has studiously ignored it because of its desire to bring the "benefits" of modern conservative rule to Canada and its continuing embarrassment at the ugly reality that the Tories have only been able to form governments in Canada in the past 30 years by cutting deals with Quebec nationalists like Lucien Bouchard.

I'm no Canadian, so if I've gotten it wrong I'd be pleased to be set right -- but if I am correct, it's pretty breathtaking for Harper to be denouncing the Bloc Québecois when they've been the principal prop for his minority government (however publicly aloof) until he brazenly betrayed them. Harper must think that Canadians are as idiotically distracted from political reality as Americans.

bringiton.

Yeah, I'm also worried about the economy tanking and Harper using anger about it to get a majority in the next election but Harper's neocon economic policies will do a lot more harm to the economy in the short-run so I think the opposition can't afford to let him stay in power for another 3 or 4 years and mess things up more. They have to act now and worry abnout the next election later for the sake of the country.

HenryFTP,

Actually the Liberals and NDP could have brought down the Conservatives without the help of the Bloc prior to the last election in October of this year. Their fear was that the governor general would call an election in that case and the Conservatives would gain a majority (the conservatives did in fact pick up a lot of seats in our recent election but, luckily not quite enough for a majority).

The weird thing here is the role of the Governor-general, who is a non-elected symbolic throwback to our days as a British colony. But in these cases the governor-general still has a great deal of power to decide whether the opposition will be allowed to form a coalition government or whether an election will be called. The hope (and likelihood) is that since we just had an election two months ago, the governor general is unlikely to force another one in this case and will allow the opposition coalition to form the government.

and I didn't think I could get any angrier, but can anyone please explain to me why Harper keeps screaming about Dion forging a deal with the separatists when Québéc when voted against succession a few years ago? (And Duceppe pledged to work for Canada for the next 18 months.)

I mean, I KNOW it's a scare tactic, but seriously dude it's making you look like a moron.

Dion's ROCKING IT! "Every member of this parliament received a mandate from the Canadian people to deliver a government that will face the economic crisis. The Prime Minister's failed; the PM doesn't have the support of this House anymore. Will he allow a vote to test if he has really the confidence of this House was [something] in parliamentary democracy."

I really like Dion.

at least on CBC, is making the American media look like dumbasses.

They're actually citing history here. How refreshing.

letter to the Governor-General.

(I read the whole thing in his accent. Also cbc.ca has the PM's speech and Duceppe and Dion's reactions to it. Harper's speech is loading. I put down 50-50 odds that I may puke before it's over.)

At the current time, exactly where does the Q Bloc settle on the ideological spectrum? Given that they are a kind of reactionary movement (i.e. increased autonomy of Quebec), where do they currently lean on the ideological spectrum under their current leadership? I ask this because I'm wondering if they'll stick to their promise to support the new coalition for the alloted time, and if they do is there any conceivable trouble down the road when the government decides to move the nation back leftward? Their being supportive of the new coalition seems to make all of them kind of strange bedfellows and I'm wondering if perhaps this couldn't blow up in all of their facese? One thing is for sure, Harper ain't going anywhere and he's hardly stupid. Like a few others, I'm feeling a bit foily. Something doesn't seem quite right about this. I'm not implying this is something put together by Harper, but it's almost as if he saw it coming quite a few months back...

shut down Parliament?! Otherwise, he'd have to resign or face a vote of no confidence on Monday which he'd lose.

Nice.

Are the Canadians screaming? They should be.

"They're calling the opposition alliance and possible unseating of the Tory government an undemocratic, illegal coup. " says the leader of the party who has now has used an unelected official to suspend our parliament in a time of economic crisis in order to keep power

It's amazing how often right-wingers seem to project truths about themselves onto their opponents. I'm hoping this backfires and the hypocrisy comes back to bite Harper in the ass in public opinion.