Alas no Ed.
The Conservative government is uttering its death knell. In desperation, it has released tapes of private NDP caucus meetings ... um ... what are they doing with tapes of private opposition meetings? How in the world they thought THAT wouldn't blow up in their faces, I don't know - the worst thing on the take was the revelation the opposition parties had considered the possibility of forming a coalition earlier. But isn't it a part of the job of the opposition parties in a minority to explore that possibility?
The deal appears to have Dion lead in the interm (edit: although some reports are contradictory). Alas, this would mean no Ed Broadbent, but avoids the messy constitutional crisis of an unelected PM. There are a few obstacles. The fear that Dion might attempt to use this to retain power in the party might split the Liberals. The bloc might flipflop (they can demand just about anything they want of the Conservatives at this point). There is also the risk the governer general will reject a three-vs-one coalition and call an election.
The thing that's being left out is the question of defining exactly what they will do differently, but it's hard to have that discussion in public given how adept the Conservatives are at playing the attack game. Normally I wouldn't be tolerant of such secrecy, but the Conservatives didn't publicly announce their economy platform until after the election, so the low standard has already been set. As for the right-to-govern, 37% of voters voted Conservative (143 seats), 44% for Liberals+NDP (114 seats) ... I'm not comfortable with the wide gap in the number of seats, but the popular vote would be on the side of the coalition (I leave the bloc's 10%/55 seats to the side in that calculation).
The deal appears to have Dion lead in the interm (edit: although some reports are contradictory). Alas, this would mean no Ed Broadbent, but avoids the messy constitutional crisis of an unelected PM. There are a few obstacles. The fear that Dion might attempt to use this to retain power in the party might split the Liberals. The bloc might flipflop (they can demand just about anything they want of the Conservatives at this point). There is also the risk the governer general will reject a three-vs-one coalition and call an election.
The thing that's being left out is the question of defining exactly what they will do differently, but it's hard to have that discussion in public given how adept the Conservatives are at playing the attack game. Normally I wouldn't be tolerant of such secrecy, but the Conservatives didn't publicly announce their economy platform until after the election, so the low standard has already been set. As for the right-to-govern, 37% of voters voted Conservative (143 seats), 44% for Liberals+NDP (114 seats) ... I'm not comfortable with the wide gap in the number of seats, but the popular vote would be on the side of the coalition (I leave the bloc's 10%/55 seats to the side in that calculation).