Canada's Constitutional Crisis

Canada's ruling Conservative Party released an economic statement so controversial, opposition parties are threatening to overthrow the government.

Even if I wasn't a sucker for an alliterative title and rhyme-ridden references to 1926's King-Byng Thing, I would eat up the news coming out of my nation's capital. For once it's interesting!

The Economic Update

Stephen Harper’s Conservatives won the largest number seats in October's parliamentary election. But they didn’t win a majority. Last week, they released an economic update, with no stimulus package, and policies guaranteed to fire up the left-leaning opposition parties (Liberals, New Democrats, and the sovereigntist Bloc Quebecois).

Inflamed they were, and have agreed to bring down the current government with a vote of no confidence, and propose to Michaëlle Jean—Canada's usually symbolic representative of the queen—to let them form a government, rather than call an election. Harper's threatening to shut down parliament to prevent the vote, and words like "democracy," "constitution," and "prorogue" are flying. It's a mess, especially since the Liberals are mid-leadership race, so their current leader could only be prime minister until May.

**Update** At noon Eastern Time, Prime Minister Harper announced that Jean had granted his request to prorogue parliament until January.

Bloggers React

As always in this kind of conflict, the blogosphere has broken out in name-calling. The three opposition leaders have been referred to as stooges, musketeers, and little pigs. Pro-coalition blogger Jerad Gallinger has been called a "traitor" by a commenter on his blog. Liam O'Brien at The Shotgun Blog calls the coalition a "Bloc-blessed junta."

At A BCer in Toronto, Jeff Jedras says Harper had better hide his "Angry Steve" persona if he wants Canadians on his side:

• Canadians don’t like Angry Steve. He needs to admit that he made some serious mistakes, that he tried to play political games during an economic crisis, that he didn’t rise to the level of statesmanship Canadians expect, that he erred on the strike ban, on pay equity, on delaying stimulus. And he needs to take responsibility for not heeding the message of Canadians that he got a minority and is expected to work collaboratively with the other parties. He needs to be genuinely contrite and apologetic.

Jay Currie, on the other hand, thinks the opposition should be worried:

• ...so far as I can tell, the people who are angry are not angry at Harper. Rather they are angry at the coalition partners for running a farce on Parliament Hill as they lose their jobs.

Some folks are genuinely on the fence. Mike Brock, a libertarian who also blogs at the Shotgun (their coverage is worth exploring), prefers an election over either of the current options, and would probably vote "none of the above":

• On one hand, I don’t feel that the Conservatives have earned my support; I feel patently let down on issues like free speech, fiscal restraint, and regulatory reform/abolition. But on the other hand, I see a group of mouth-frothing leftists at the gates, desperately waiting for their chance to exploit this “economic crisis” as their chance to backend-load leftist initiatives.