A Most Un-canadian Caper

摘要

There are no tanks in the streets or protesters occupying the airport, but Canada is in the midst of political turmoil the like of which this normally placid country has rarely seen. Only seven weeks ago Stephen Harper, the prime minister, won a second term for his Conservative government, but once again without winning a parliamentary majority. Now the three disparate opposition parties-the centrist Liberals, the socialist New Democrats (ndp) and the separatist Bloc Quebecois-have ganged up in order to oust the Conservatives and replace them with a centre-left coalition. That left Mr Harper scrabbling for survival. As The Economist went to press, he was expected to ask Michaelle Jean, who as governor-general acts as Canada's head of state, to suspend Parliament for a month-though he might instead seek its dissolution and a fresh election.rnSince the opposition parties hold a combined 163 of the 308 seats in the House of Commons, if they stick together they would easily win a confidence vote against the government (which holds 143 seats) if this went ahead as scheduled on December 8th. Their alliance is an unlikely one. Stephane Dion, the Liberal leader, is an academic from Quebec who came into politics a decade ago expressly to oppose the French-speaking province's separatists, represented by Gilles Duceppe and his Bloc Quebecois. Jack Layton, the ndp leader, has spent his career savaging previous Liberal governments.