In a classic case of hubris coming back and biting you in the ass, Conservative Party leader and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is on the verge of losing his role as leader of Canada.
For those of you who don’t follow Canadian politics, Harper is a right-winger who only won 36% of the popular vote in Canada in an election held a couple of months ago. While millions of Canadians voted for left-leaning parties, the vote on the left was splintered four ways, thus opening the door for Harper’s Conservatives to narrowly win the election. (In terms of mainstream parties, Canada has four left-wing parties and one right-wing party, the Conservatives).
Harper has been hell-bent on destroying the Liberals, but his hyper-partisan zeal could very likely be his undoing.
Because Harper leads a minority government, he and his party can be toppled by losing a non-confidence vote that could take place as early as next Monday. Leaders of the three left-wing parties who won seats in the election (the Green Party didn’t win any seats) have agreed to form a coalition government should the government fall, and that could happen as soon as next Monday, when the Conservatives table their 2009 budget.
Instead of governing with a sense of humility and cooperation with the other parties, Harper chose to govern as if he won a huge majority and was given a strong mandate by Canadians. He has been single-minded in his desire to crush the Liberals, but now his zealotry is coming back to haunt him.
The irony of being undone by one’s own ideology is beyond delicious.
What’s more, if the Liberals and the NDP (New Democratic Party) figure out that their similarities are stronger than their differences, they could use the time spent in a coalition government to “unite the left.”
And if that were to happen, if Canada were to adopt an American style two party system with liberals/progressives in one party and conservative right-wingers in the other party, the Conservative party would be doomed to suffer eternal opposition status.
Canada is still a leftist country; that is borne out by the millions of Canadians who voted for parties on the left-hand of the political continuum. The only reason Conservatives won the recent election was because the vote on the left was split four ways.
In the short term, Harper’s über-partisanship could very likely result in a coalition of the left ousting him as Prime Minister. In the long term, Harper’s actions may end up permanently uniting the left and if that happens, the right wing Conservatives will be forever destined for the margins of political relevance, all because Harper wanted move Canada too far to the right.
Stay tuned. Canadian elections, which are traditionally boring as hell, just got very interesting.
(cross-posted at abcparty.org "anyone but conservatives")