Canada's Opposition Parties May Topple Conservative Government

TORONTO — Opposition parties said Friday they may seek to topple Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government and form a ruling coalition, charging that the Conservatives haven't done enough to rescue Canada from the global economic crisis.

Harper blasted the opposition in a televised address. "They want to take power, not earn it," said Harper, whose Conservatives won enough votes in the Oct. 14 election to stay in power.

The opposition Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois are discussing the option of a new government despite last month's vote, said Karl Belanger, a spokesman for NDP leader Jack Layton.

The Liberals said they are considering introducing a motion declaring no confidence in the minority Conservative government but no decision has been made. A defeat on such a vote by Harper's party could set the stage for another election or give the opposition a chance to form a government.

No federal government has ever been ousted in favor of an opposition coalition.

Though Harper's party retained power last month, it did not win the majority of parliament's 308 seats and must rely on opposition support to pass budgets and legislation.

Opposition members in parliament said they cannot support the government's updated fiscal plan, introduced by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty on Thursday, because it offers no stimulus package to deal with the global meltdown.

The opposition said it was considering introducing a motion on Monday, but Harper said he was delaying all votes that could topple his government until Dec. 8.

Harper defended his response to the economic crisis, saying he had acted to keep taxes low and that in the next couple of months his party will introduce a budget that will includes a stimulus package.

He said the opposition's only concern is taking over the government.

"The opposition has every right to defeat the government, but (Liberal leader) Stephane Dion does not have the right to take power without an election," Harper said. "It should be your choice, not theirs."

Liberal lawmaker John McCallum sought to reassure markets of the potential change in government.

"I understand that the global economy, the Canadian economy is fragile, so I want the business community, the financial community to know that should we form the government, that the stability of our financial system and of our economy will be uppermost in our mind every step of the way," McCallum said.

The opposition has also objected to Harper's plans to scrap public subsidies for political parties. The opposition relies on the subsidies far more than Harper's Conservatives, who have raised twice as much in donations as the three opposition parties combined.

Comments

[SuesW]

I despise Harper and have never voted conservative ... but that's who Canadian's put in there unfortunately ... now I wish the politicians would stop trying to get power and start doing their jobs. It seems that their obsession for power is overtaking what they're suppose to be doing. It's freaking annoying.

[SarahZim]

The Canadian electoral system is very different. Canadians did not vote for Harper, they vote for their member of parliament. The government is usually formed by the party with the most seats, but if two oppositions parties want to combine their caucuses to form a government it is explicitly allowed in Canada's constitution. Parliaments all over the world are run by coalition governments.

Harper's party only received 38% of the votes and nearly half of their seats would have been lost had it not been for vote splitting between the center and the left (Canadians do not do a run off). So a coalition government actually represents the voters better. 62% of Canadians are pretty excited right now, and hopefully the first thing the coalition does is enact proportional representation in Parliament or at least a run off system so the Right wing Conservatives don't win because the Center and the Left split the vote.

[Maschine]

Right you are, Canada by and large is left of center. That is our nature.

Conservatives were dead in Canada after Mulroney and only after the Ontario hacks managed to Hijack Reform ( boot Manning ) did they make a comeback.

My hope is that we see a new government here only to send a message that we are not yanks and earmarks and immature playground antics have no place in out politics.

Our country isn't perfect , no need to belittle it further. What fcking amateurs.

[tablogloid]

There is also another option. The other parties can agree to an accord that one party, say, the liberals, can become the ruling party. This happened provincially, in
Ontario in 1985 when the NDP party (Canadian form of a socialist party) signed an accord to let the Liberal govern after more than 40 years of Progressive Conservative Party rule.

[Exusian]

Correction: a minority of Canadians gave Harper's Conservatives a plurality, which means a clear majority of Canadians voted for the opposition parties.

And those opposition parties ARE doing their job: opposing a minority government and challenging its competence and legitimacy.

If the opposition parties can form a working coalition representing a collective majority of voters then they have every right and duty to bring Harper and his bulling, arrogant minority government down and ask the Governor General to allow them to form it's replacement.

It's called Parliamentary Democracy.

[MPeter]

Harper does not get it; he and his Finance Minister want to do to Canada what Harris did to Ontario. I want the Center-Left opposition to throw them out.

[CanuckDemocrat]

Half of Harper's cabinet are old Ontario Tory retreads..­. Flaherty, Baird, Clement. Look what they did to Ontario... hid deficits, went to war with teachers and public servants, sold off major assets. EXACTLY what they are doing right now. Makes me want to vomit.

[Mannock]

You are so right, CanuckDemocrat. The Harris government, with Baird, Flaherty and Clement, destroyed Ontario and claimed all of the problems on the previous NDP government. We are talking about nasty hicks. This is a blow to the blowhards. Coalition, hopefully.

[redstarcafe]

GreenPynchon: Nice try. He sure would like it. And wouldn't that be something: a US president and a Canadian PM who can actually speak in complete sentences, although that shouldn't be the only determinant.

[AxelDC]

Harper has been acting in bad faith for too long.

He is afraid of going into next year as a minority government, knowing the opposition can topple him as the depression weakens his poll numbers and forces another election. Rather than waiting for the Liberals to right themselves, he is forcing them to face an immediate election just 2 months after the last one, or give up publicly financing the parties.

Harper has been disingenuous all along. He violated his own fixed elections law by calling for elections this fall. He campaigned on a "no deficits" and a month later, declared massive deficits. Now he is trying to knee cap the opposition by cutting off their funding or force them to face a 4th election in 4 years.

I don't think Harper anticipated being ousted like this. He seems to think that being the largest party, he has a god-given right to govern, but a coalition would control a majority of the votes, albeit fragile.

Canada seriously needs to shift to PR or face years of unstable minority governments as it has 5 major parties on the national level, making winner-take-all give a party with 38% a clear majority of seats. They also need to accept that most parliamentary nations have coalition governments, not these ridiculously unstable Minority governments that rely on the opposition's fear of elections to survive.

[CanuckDemocrat]

Breaking his own election laws? Who does that remind you of? Good ole criminal George W. Bush.
You make great points here.

[HappyNuck]

AxelDC wrote: "Canada seriously needs to shift to PR or face years of unstable minority governments as it has 5 major parties on the national level, making winner-take-all give a party with 38% a clear majority of seats. "

Very true. I'm hoping that this is a major plank in the NDP's coalition negotiations that are going on this weekend. The Bloc won't like it though. They're a big beneficiary of first-past-the-post and would lose power under PR.

The Liberals have traditionally not been in favour of it and won't be if they still have fantasies of returning to "Natural Governing Party" status, but I think the reality is that we are not likely to see much more in the way of majority governments in the future. So I hope some of them can recognize reality so that we can get Proportional Representation nationally.

[redstarcafe]

Harper's focus on greed and politics has opened the door (Sarah Palin, eat your heart out) to the greedy politicking of the other over-60% who didn't vote for Harper. None of this is helpful when the economic issues need to be addressed now. I say boot out Finance Minister Flaherty, although it's possible Steven helped shape the no-economic-update. Finance Minister Jack Layton? ROFL! I don't think so!

Oh and PS, Santa, can we have a Canadian Obama?

[CanuckDemocrat]

Flaherty has been an ideological id*iot since his days in Ontario govt... he is an extreme ideologue and belongs nowhere near the Finance portfolio.

[Bajangal]

Yo........­..redstarc­afe

Finance Minister Jack Layton? ROFL......­...couldn'­t agree with you more. We Canadians don't seem to understand the DANGER of the NDP.

[landoffools]

Steven Harper = the G.W. Bush of the North !!

[SarahZim]

They may share ideology and a blindness to reality, but he isn't as stupid as Bush. He is an unwavering ideologue and the most ruthless politician Canada has ever seen. This guy wakes up thinking about destroying his opposition, not how he can do right by his country. He doesn't need a Karl Rove he is Karl Rove

[boing007]

SarahZim

They may share ideology and a blindness to reality, but he isn't as stupid as Bush. He is an unwavering ideologue and the most ruthless politician Canada has ever seen. This guy wakes up thinking about destroying his opposition, not how he can do right by his country. He doesn't need a Karl Rove he is Karl Rove.

You're speaking about Stephen Harper, I presume. That's all he likes to do. He's a thug. And a smug one at that.

[Kim D]

I wish the Liberal, NDP and Green parties would merge into one left leaning party. Right now the considerable left vote is split among the three parties. The Conservative and Reform parties merged so the votes from the right would not be spit.

[Danny]

Yes, that is good thinking. I wish French parties of the left (all 6 or 7 or 8 of them) would do the same.

[SarahZim]

Or they could start doing a run off or allowing voters to choose a second choice and if their first isn't in the top two their votes go to their second choice while the 1.90 subsidy allotted from their vote goes to their first.
There is a huge chasm between the Liberals and NDP on taxes. As the Liberal leader said "Corporate tax cuts aren't Right wing or Left wing they are good economics"

[AmandaBC]

"I wish the Liberal, NDP and Green parties would merge into one left leaning party."

You know what Kim, that''s pretty much what many of us were trying to do before the elections: strategize (i.e. voting for the party with the best chance of defeating the conservatives in a particular district) so that Harper would be strongly defeated. Instead, the opposition could not look past their stupid squabbles and the conservatives solidified their position. On the positive side, Harper got too cocky and started speaking of some sort of "mandate." And now they're finally coming together to bring him down.

[boing007]

The Conservative and Reform parties merged so the votes from the right would not be spit.

That's true, so why can't the Liberals, NDP and Bloc do the same?

Don't forget, the Conservative Party used to be The Progressive Conservative Party of Canada. They use to have Red Tories. There are very few moderates left in their party now, it's just rightwing wackos and Canadian-style Palin types. They have become more and more like the Republican Party.

[ilurnkwik]

I am a Canadian linked very strongly with the United States. Stephen Harper was elected by the Canadian people to serve as Prime Minister. Regardless. This is nothing less than a legal coup. We may as well have election scrutineers standing outside the polling booths with AK47s.
Our political apathy is turning to bite us in the posterior. The Liberals weren't elected because people still remember all the Chretien cronies making lots of illegal dollars and the NDP weren't elected because they have no confidence. Many still remember their 15 minutes when they took away paid holidays people had fought for. Rae Days. And then Rae switches parties. OMG what a mess.

[CanuckDemocrat]

This isn't the US. Minority governments are brought down ALL THE TIME in Canadian history. This is no coup. To our US friends, don't believe this drivel... our democratic system has 5 major parties, and if one of them has a MINORITY government, they MUST govern as a coalition or they risk being taken down by a simple vote. One vote in the parliament, and they are done. This is the way it is done in Canada. If the Conservatives want to keep power, they will be a little more conciliatory and work with the other parties like they PROMISED in the last election 6 weeks ago. Otherwise, the can be defeated by a simple no-confidence vote.

[baglenmushie]

The other parties also promised to act in good faith and work with the Conservative Party for the betterment of the country. Dion made a point of saying that, in his concession speach, that he would accept the will of the people and work with Harper's government - that promise did not even last a week! So many people here are willing to take the word of a LIberal or NDP they need to get out their history books

[arvada]

Tell ya what we are gonna do there Nuk

We are gonna annex ya'all to save ya from the commie pinkos

YOU'RE GONNA LOVE IT

[northstar11]

UNITE THE RIGHT WAS THE MESS-- lots of guys switched parties for the disaster.l­ets not forget the backstabbing of the manitoba member after his vote was secured.

[MPeter]

No it is not a coup. Harper has a minority government; a second one if I may add. That means voters do not trust him enough to give him a majority. He should therefore be consulting with the opposition which, in totality got more votes and more members of Parliament. Do simple math: The NDP with 38 MPs, Liberals with 76 MPs and the Bloc with 45. Together, that is a majority in a Parliament of 308 members. You would have to be insane to call this a coup. It is simply doing the will of the majority.

[baglenmushie]

But not the will of the people that voted-no one voted for the country to be run be a coalition- a minority government is not a bad thing a lot of good has be done in the past by minority governments-this is not the will of the majority. It is the will of would be political leaders that are deliberately underming the stability of the country for the sake of their own ambition and to hell with what is good for the country or it's people.

[HappyNuck]

As I said to someone else in this thread, Stephen Harper himself was not elected by the Canadian people as Prime Minister. His party won 143 seats out of 308, which allowed his party to form a MINORITY government. As leader of that party he becomes the Prime Minister. If his party turfed him and voted in another leader that person would become Prime Minister, without an election. This has happened many times within Canada.

If his party lose confidence in the House, a coalition representing the majority of MPs can form government. This is not a coup, this is within the rules of parliamentary government recognized around the world.

We are not in the United States or France where we directly elect our head of state. Our ceremonial and nominal head of state is Governor-General Michaëlle Jean. Time to head back to civics class my friend.

[northstar11]

this could be karma-- steve ran the last minority parliament by making every issue a non confidence vote -the opposition was too divided to risk an election so steve was able to push thru odious legislation .
now the opposition has the numbers to call his bluff.-- just give us legislation , anything will do , we'll declare non confidence and form a left leaning coalition. you stevie boy will be pushed to the sidelines hoisted on your own petard.wha­t goes around comes around.

[ZoeK]

Please do not be fooled by our Republican PM......he is attempting to strong-arm a right-wing agenda into Canadian politics, by a bill that would make us closer to the U.S system. That would leave us vulnerable to Corporate & special interests.

A minority govt is supposed to work with opposition parties, to implement a moderate agenda, not bully through unpopular (and undemocratic) motions.

The true-number majority in this country voted centre, centre-left, and left. (not for the Cons) It is legal and within our constitution to have opposition form a coalition govt, and frankly, would be a relief. This Republican­-mirror-im­age party does not even have the support of a majority of people, and is only in power due to our outdated first-past-the-post system.

Taking a page from Karl Rove, Harper is now taking to the airwaves, crying that opposition leaders merely want to "take" power.

Please do your best to assist us, any way you can, to help us preserve our democracy.

[CanuckDemocrat]

Well said.

[boing007]

Taking a page from Karl Rove, Harper is now taking to the airwaves, crying that opposition leaders merely want to "take" power.

Please do your best to assist us, any way you can, to help us preserve our democracy.

That's all Harper wants to do. Take power and consolidate it. More and more. Scary.

[GreenPynchon]

Wouldn’t it be awesome if Michael Ignatieff was Prime Minister when Obama came in? The guy taught at Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, the London School of Economics and turned down a Rhodes Scholarship! The one guy who can actually brag to Obama and Bill Clinton! He also was nominated for one of the most prestigious literature awards in the world (Booker Award), has written 16 books, has written many times for the New York Times, worked as a journalist, documentary filmmaker, an arts presenter on the BBC and was voted one of the top 50 intellectuals in the world. And to top it all off, he is a world class scholar on human rights.

[CharlieMarlowe]

But he was in favour of the Iraq invasion, so, unlike Chretien, he would have involved us in the conflict.

[CanuckDemocrat]

Did he? Well hopefully he can explain that mistake. He wasn't in govt at the time, but if he was to be elected he would have to explain himself on this one.

[CanuckDemocrat]

That's where we're headed I think. The Liberals will regain their party stature under Ignatieff. Harper will go back to the oil fields of Alberta and make his millions.

[baglenmushie]

First he has to be elected as leader of the Liberal party - are you forgetting the ambitions of Bob Rae- then he has to be the acknowledged leader of the coalition- are you forgetting the Bloc. If the Liberals and NDP do not throw enough money at the Bloc - tax payer money-to buy them and secure their support this does not work. Don't over look the fact that in doing so, they will incur the fury of the rest of Canada, who will not take kindly to having their tax dollars end up in Quecbec in order to buy a coup

[GreenPynchon]

dion, layton and duceppe have no chance of leading. the ndp and ontario liberals hate rae and would never allow him to lead. supposedly duceppe actually said he wanted iggy to lead. so it seems that he is now, weirdly enough, the compromise candidate that dion was two years ago.

[canucklivinginUSA]

God, I hate le Bloc. If Le Bloc doesn't rise in power, I will be the happiest girl in the world.

[ZoeK]

Some very good points, however he really needs to work on being less condescending. Also, he may allienate the left within the party, and any potentials that could be picked up from the NDP. (though he would likely gain a few red tories)

[CeeCee]

Yes, but can he be a good P.M. ?? Sometimes I think he sees us, the people, as the great unwashed.

[bodo]

Democracy means majority rule. Harper's party won the election fair and square by getting more votes than any other party. When the three losing parties gang up in a coalition against the winner, it technically defies democracy.

[CanuckDemocrat]

Do you know the meaning of the word MAJORITY? Apparently not. Harper won 144 of 301 seats, and 37% of the popular vote. no majority there. That is called a MINORITY. And democracy will speak when the MINORITY is brought down by the MAJORITY of other seats. Get it? Good.

[HappyNuck]

Technically, what is being proposed is within the rules of Parliamentary democracy and is in no way undemocratic.

Harper did not "win" the election. His party won more MPs than any other party, but not the majority of those seats in the House, nor the majority of the popular vote. Because his party had more seats than any other single party his party was offered the opportunity to form government by the Governor-General. As leader of his party, he becomes the Prime Minister of that government.

And majority rule applies in the House. Harper's government is a minority government so he needs to convince enough of the other MPs to vote with his party to pass legislation and to retain the confidence of the House. If the majority of MPs can form an opposing coalition they can form government. This is all quite democratic.

[AmandaBC]

"Democracy means majority rule."

Newsflash: Harper doesn't have one.

[Bajangal]

Agreed Bodo ..........­. it seems that a move is afoot to destabilize Canada.

[ObserverinVancouver]

Sorry, but that is a complete and total crock of s**t! Read Exusian's comment above.

[Mannock]

No, it is totally legal.

[LightSword]

Conservatives are actually winning all over the world xP. USA is the only exception.­.. Can't wait for UK to get David as PM!

[Mannock]

Yup. And the only person not running around like a headless chicke is Barack Obama. Speaks volumes.

[IanInCanada]

We expected a fiscal plan that would help alleviate the current economic downturn/crisis.
The Conservatives basically announced a plan that cut government spending so that they could avoid a deficit - something they claimed months ago they would never, never, never allow. There was no major stimulus offerings. That may come next year, they said. How nice. How tardy.

Snuck in the middle was a politicall­y-motivate­d (it would save only budgetary peanuts) announcement that they would cancel the current scheme by which all parties who have at least one seat in Parliament get government funding based on the votes they received at election time. Only the Conservative Party has a large amount of private donations hence this new law would hurt them slightly but be a major financial blow to the other parties. Not only sneaky but what in heaven's name was that decision doing in what was supposed to be a response to the economic situation?

[Canukistani]

Mr Harper seems to be quite happy to follow in Bush's footsteps with lemming-like ignorance of the cliff that lies ahead. He's another one that doesn't seem to want be confused by any of those pesky facts.

If any of the other parties had anything that resembled a leader there might be some hope to throw the bum out, but the so-called leaders of the opposition parties are all sadly lacking in leadership skills of any sort. I don't think it'll happen anytime soon no matter how they huff and puff.