CBC News announced about an hour ago that the Liberal and New Democratic Parties have signed an agreement in principle for a coalition government.
The Liberals and New Democrats signed an agreement on Monday to form an unprecedented coalition government, with a written pledge of support from the Bloc Québécois, if they are successful in ousting the minority Conservative government in a coming confidence vote.
The accord between parties led by Stéphane Dion, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe came just hours after Liberal caucus members agreed unanimously that Dion would stay on to lead the Liberal-NDP coalition, with support in the House of Commons from Bloc MPs.
In the article, Dion also states that he will step down as Liberal leader in May and hand the reins to the Party's next choice. Leading contenders Bob Rae, Michael Ignatieff and Dominic Leblanc have been informed of the agreement and expressed their support, also noting that the Liberal Party leadership race will go ahead as planned.
Stephen Harper could still block this confidence motion -- which would knock him out of power and into the leadership of the opposition -- by proroguing Parliament. This would mean that Parliament would be suspended, but not dissolved -- no business would get done, but Harper would remain in power. He could prorogue until January, which would give him time to leak details of his upcoming early budget in an attempt to gain public support and sabotage the coalition attempt, but it would be a big political risk for a minority Prime Minister.
And here I thought, that after two elections in as many years (pretty much), Canadian politics was about to get boring....