And now what!? 
 

by Angelo Persichilli
THE HILL TIMES

What are we going to do now? After 38 days of an intense, nasty, expensive and, I might add unfortunately, useless election campaign, we’re back to square one and Canada still seems to be without a stable government ready to take on the domestic and international challenges ahead. Taking for granted that Canadians didn’t trust any political organization with a majority mandate, does this all mean that we’re going back to another raucous and dysfunctional Parliament we had up until last spring, or is there a possibility of other combinations?
Unfortunately, there are not many political combinations available for an alternative to a single-party majority government.
The only ideological and remote possibility of a coalition involving the Conservatives is the cooperation with the Liberals, or part of its caucus.
But this is impossible because both organizations consider themselves “government” and any coalition is out of the question. True, the Conservatives were able to remain in power thanks to Liberal support, but that relationship can’t be by any stretch of imagination considered cooperation between the two parties.
Liberals were not supporting Conservatives. They were just waiting for the proper time to topple them.
All other possible coalitions exclude the participation of the Conservatives.
The most logical combination might come from a coalition between the NDP and the Liberals.
This worked in 1985 in Ontario when the New Democratic Party of Bob Rae decided to throw its support behind the Liberal Party of David Peterson, putting an end to two decades of Conservative dominance in the biggest Canadian province.
The lieutenant governor of Ontario gave the mandate to form the government to the Conservative Party of Frank Miller whose party elected the most MPPs, but without reaching the majority. When Miller failed to find any support from the Liberals and also from the NDP, he gave the mandate to David Peterson who coordinated an agenda with Rae who, in return, supported the Liberal government at Queen’s Park. It was not a real coalition because the NDP gave its “external” support to the Liberal government without having its own members in the provincial executive.
But this kind of cooperation looks like it might be difficult at this time. At the beginning of the campaign, NDP Leader Jack Layton seemed open to this suggestion but in an interview last week told me that he never mentioned a coalition with the Liberals in case none of the national
political parties would get a majority mandate.
Layton said it was the media incorrectly reporting his words. And I don’t blame Layton because, considering the Ontario experience with the Liberals, it doesn’t look good for the New Democrats.
In fact, the NDP provided an agenda to the Liberals and when Peterson felt confident enough with the electorate, unceremoniously dropped Bob Rae after two years and won a huge majority in 1987.
Besides, nobody expects that the combined numbers of members of Parliament between Liberals and NDP would be enough to get a majority going beyond 155 MPs.
Of course, there is also the Bloc Québécois of Gilles Duceppe. As in the past, this political organization has been available to support specific initiatives of federal governments. However, I doubt that any of the federalist political organizations would be officially in bed with a separatist party.
Then again, there is another possibility: all pollsters will be proven wrong and, after Oct. 14, they will be forced to close shop and sent back to school if one of the major parties will elect more than 155 MPs. However, on this possibility I wouldn’t bet a lot of money.
This means that if cool heads don’t prevail, and considering the personal and nasty campaign we have just witnessed, we’re in for a rough ride ahead and right at the time when we need a steady guide at the switch.