Christmas has come early in Canada, folks!
The CBC is now reporting that an official agreement has now been made between the Liberal party and New Democratic Party to form a coalition and topple the current conservative minority government a week from Monday in a vote of confidence with respect to the conservative national economic plan.
A deal has been negotiated between NDP Leader Jack Layton and Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion that would see them form a coalition government for two and a half years, the CBC's Keith Boag reported, citing sources.
The NDP would be invited into cabinet and get 25 per cent of seats, Boag said, adding that the party wouldn't get the position of the finance chair or the deputy prime minister's post.
Who said Canadian politics is boring?!!
This all started when the Conservative government put forth an economic plan that basically ignored the economic situation that Canada faces amongst other western nations in the world. What's more, the conservatives played politics with the budget by trying to eliminate the campaign contributions that the parties now get which amounts to around $30 million. While the amount is completely insignificant to the Canadian budget, this decision would have put the opposition parties in financial jeopardy. Harper withdrew this proposal but the opposition called his bluff. The Harper government has lost all confidence and trust with the 3 main opposition parties.
Furthermore, the Harper government now faces possible criminal charges for illegally eavesdropping and recording / distributing a private conference call with the NDP caucus so that they could attempt to smear the opposition party leader as being "anti-Canadian". Sound familiar?
Well, unfortunately for Mr. Harper -- we, in Canada, have what's known as a "Parliamentary Democracy". Harper seems to not realize that he is in a minority government situation and has severely underestimated the opposition.
The government will fall if the confidence vote fails on December 8. The Governor General of Canada will then have to agree to this nation having a coalition government (almost a certainty) in what is sure to be one of the biggest blunders in Canadian political history.