Coalition Like It's Going Out Of Style

I don't know how I've resisted the urge to write about all of the machinations in Ottawa, but let me just say that it likely has something to do with two business trips to Winnipeg in November. Ah, Winnipeg in November...my friends, this is the life.

So being late to the game I won't pretend I have much to add that hasn't been said by much smarter people than I.

Peter, not surprisingly, is smart over here.

Paris is "wowzers" over here (and other places).

Coyne is losing his mind over here...and here...and here...and, well, you get the point.

Wells loses his mind here and here and here...well, you get the point.

Also, I've enjoyed reading Radwanski in the Globe and comrade O'Malley in Maclean's.

So, now for my two cents (thought you could escape, eh? Not so much.).

Besides being downright fun and maybe leading to Canada's first coalition since we let honest to god Commies sit in Parliament this is a fascinating example of hubris. Harper is eating his lunch after he tried to stuff it down the throats of Mssrs. Dion, Layton and Duceppe. Not being a constitutional scholar this all seems like fair play, as crazy as it may seem to the outside world. Ezra Levant was on TV yesterday ranting and raving about how the stock market was reacting so negatively to word of the coalition, but of course if politicians could in fact control the stock market, Harper wouldn't be in this mess now would he.

I've been asking my smartest friends and colleagues a question that is stuck in my head and everyone seems to agree that this is all political miscalculation by the CPC. No one thinks that any of this is orchestrated and I admit that it's a bit much to think it might be. What bothers me though is that my brain can run along the following lines: Despite what we (the royal we) may all like to comfort ourselves thinking politicians aren't stupid. No not stupid person introduces a poison pill without thinking that there will be some sort of consequence, possibly severe. People don't like being poisoned. So, what did the Prime Minister think would be the consequences of the Economic Update? Are there reasons that Harper might have provoked this incident? I can think of two. Not good reasons, but here they are:

1. None of the other parties can afford an election, therefore if he can walk enough of the badness back and make the case that a stimulus package must await the Americans first move, he could position himself to take more seats in a hasty election. Dion can't exactly run a credible campaign and the NDP simply won't win enough seats to be a real threat, although they might finish off the Libs while their shit hits the fan.
2. He actually wants to be desposed for a while in order to hang the opposition with the recession he was about to get hung with. Bob Rae of all people will be sensitive to the fact that economic forces are much bigger than the politicians who promise a way to the light at the end of the tunnel. I wonder if any of the three coalition party leaders have considered whether they actually want to be the government right now?

But all of this is too cute, isn't it? This must really just be a story of the Cons fucking up. Interesting though that after a week of crisis brought on by someone's smarter than thou ego, no one has walked the plank. Not Giorno. Not Muttart. Not Flaherty. And, not yet anyway, certainly not Harper.