Wild About Writing

During the election campaign I posted several items here and on Democraticspace.com about the possibility of a Liberal-NDP coalition as an alternative to a minority Conservative govenrment. My point was that the two Opposition parties, with the support of the Bloc, would be able to gain the confidence of the House of Commons if the Tories either lost the election, or later on, failed to carry a confidence vote in the new House.

Now it appears that this may be about to happen. The Economic Update of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has fallen short on two counts – its failure to provide any economic stimulus, and its move to wipe out the public subsidy for political parties.

Two Opposition powerhouses, former PM Jean Chretien and the former leader of the NDP, Ed Broadbent, are negotiating a possible coalition government to replace the Tories after a non-confidence vote on Monday.

It’s quite amazing that Prime Minister Harper has so suddenly abandoned his post-election reasonableness. He also seems to have forgotten the pledge he made just a few days ago that it would be “essential” to go into deficit in order to fund measures to deal with the economic crisis.

Instead, he’s reverted to his right-wing ideological stance and is using the economic crisis as an opportunity to hammer the opposition parties. It’s an old Tory strategy to use a wedge issue to attack members of a minority group (in this case politicians) who don’t have much public support. Mr. Harper tried it with the arts and culture community during the election, and it backfired, probably costing him his hoped-for majority. Now he’s done it again.

All this has brought on an interesting array of political and business opinion.

 On the CBC’s At Issue panel last night, pollster Allan Gregg called it “the most reckless act of brinkmanship” he’s ever witnessed. There’s a 50-50 chance, Gregg added, that this government is finished.

Adam Radwanski, in his Globe and Mail blog took his own paper to task for a pre-election editorial that lauded Mr. Harper for his “capacity to grow.” Of Harper today, he had this to say: “It takes a special kind of immaturity to look at an economic crisis – one that has people worried about their jobs and their homes and their life savings – and consider only how it might be turned to your advantage.”

In the Toronto Star, Thomas Walkom asks: “Has Jim Flaherty met the new Stephen Harper? If the finance minister’s economic update is any indication, the answer is no.”

And on its editorial page today, the Star sums it up this way: “So much for the kinder, gentler Stephen Harper who appeared to emerge from the Oct. 14 federal election. “

There’s always the possibility the Harperites will back down on party funding. They’re removing this measure from the ways-and-means motion that will go to a vote in the House on Monday.

The Conservatives have to be shell-shocked at the Opoposition determination to defeat them.

But even if somehow the Tories slither through this crisis, I sense that they’ve set the stage for their own demise.

Emboldened by the knowledge that a Liberal-NDP coalition is a feasible option, how much longer will these parties prop up Harper?

My guess is not more than a few weeks, if that long. That will give the Liberals time to short-circuit their leadership contest and install Michael Ignatieff as the successor — through a caucus vote — to Stephane Dion.

We’re in the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. and Mr. Harper sees it as an opportunity to destroy his political competitors. Not exactly the stuff of statesmanship, but a fitting low note on which this man’s deplorable Prime Ministership is coming to an end.