The people spoke and it was Harper’s obligation to lead the minority parliament. Lead the other elected representatives of the people not attack them and disregard their POV and generally be a dictator.

We are in an economic crisis. Why could Harper not have called up the other leaders or brought them in for talks before the financial update to make sure that he would have support of enough of the elected House of Commons to pass his legislation. That would have been the reasonable thing to do.

The unreasonable thing to do would be to create a situation where there would have to be another election six weeks after we have just had one (which incidentally Harper called 2 years before the end of his mandate).

The Liberal coalition seems like the only way to avoid another expensive election in a time of economic instability. It didn’t have to be this way if Harper had done the what was needed in a minority parliament.

I guess its true what they say. The only thing Harper cares about is getting the power of a majority.

Harper was more than happy to let the Bloc support his minority government so I don’t see why this should be a problem for you now. In any event, the people of Quebec democratically chose Bloc MPs to represent them. This is democracy in action, not “grand theft”.

Since Layton and Dion together received 45 per cent of the vote in the last election, they have more of mandate than Harper who received only 38 per cent.

I certainly see Dion as a leader (and Layton too). If Harper actually was the leader you claim him to be, he would have the support of the majority in Parliament and his government would not be collapsing now.

Let’s have an election. I am all for it.

But to let a one-province separatist party decide who runs the country isn’t democracy. It’s grand theft.

Layton and Dion have no mandate and Canadians spoke pretty loudly on their platforms.

I know rules are rules – so does that justify collapsing Canada? How anyone could see Dion as a leader is beyond me.

Here’s one of the problems….

Prime Minister Stephane Dion. Dion received the biggest shellacking any Liberal leader in history has received. He drove his party’s support to a 100-year low. Nobody wanted him – not even his own party. And now, by this coup d’etat, he will be prime minister.
More here if you’re so inclined to listen to reason:

This will also cause a western separatist movement unlike anything Canada has ever seen before. And I think you may already realize that the West is Canada’s only hope for financial survival.

Who is the Conservative party trying to work with?

“If a Cabinet is defeated in the House of Commons on a motion of censure or want of confidence, the Cabinet must either resign (the Governor General will then ask the Leader of the Opposition to form a new Cabinet) or ask for a dissolution of Parliament and a fresh election.

In very exceptional circumstances, the Governor General could refuse a request for a fresh election. For instance, if an election gave no party a clear majority and the Prime Minister asked for a fresh election without even allowing the new Parliament to meet, the Governor General would have to say no. This is because, if “parliamentary government” is to mean anything, a newly elected House of Commons must at least be allowed to meet and see whether it can transact public business. Also, if a minority government is defeated on a motion of want of confidence very early in the first session of a new Parliament, and there is a reasonable possibility that a government of another party can be formed and get the support of the House of Commons, then the Governor General could refuse the request for a fresh election. The same is true for the Lieutenant-Governors of the provinces.”