Canadian Chill

Following up on a story I wrote about in December, Canada's national political situation, which had been described as being in a constitutional crisis, has calmed down.

The Liberals and the New Democrats had been plotting the downfall of the Conservative minority government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Two developments in the meantime have derailed that plan:

1. The Harper Government amended its budget proposal in a manner that was sufficient to bring the Liberals on board.
2. Michael Ignatieff took over from Stephane Dion as Liberal leader. Ignatieff is less enamored of the prospect of a coalition than Dion was.

This Calgary Herald report fills in some of the details on this story, since my last post.

While things are calm for the time being, the situation is likely to remain unstable until the electorate gives one party, or a viable coalition, a majority in the House of Commons.