(Updates with comments from Harper's spokesman, background.) By Nirmala Menon Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES OTTAWA -(Dow Jones)- Canada's minority Conservative government, re-elected less than two months ago, could be toppled as early as next week if Prime Minister Stephen Harper doesn't make changes to an economic plan that has all three opposition parties up in arms.
Two of the three Canadian opposition parties are negotiating to form a coalition government supported by the third if the government is defeated, Canadian media reported.
Former Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien and Ed Broadbent, former leader of the New Democratic Party, are brokering a behind-the-scene deal, CTV News said, quoting party sources. The two parties plan to ask Governor-general Michaelle Jean to allow them to govern as a coalition if the Conservative government is defeated. The Quebec-based separatist Bloc Quebecois will support them, but won't be part of a coalition.
"It's really serious," Antonia Maioni, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said in an interview with Dow Jones.
Finance Minister Jim Flaherty's economic and fiscal update Thursday contained an array of spending cuts to keep the budget in surplus, but didn't have measures to stimulate an economy that he acknowledged was in a recession.
The most controversial proposal was the elimination of taxpayer subsidies to political parties, a move that provoked howls of protest from the opposition when it was leaked to Canadian media Wednesday. Although the Conservatives stand to lose the most, they are also cash-rich, unlike the Liberals.
In an interview with CTV Newsnet, Flaherty said Canadians didn't want political parties "to feather their own nests" during tough economic times.
All three opposition parties said they won't support the economic plan which has to be voted on by lawmakers. Money bills are matters of confidence so the government could fall if all the opposition vote against it, which could lead to another election.
No One's Backing Down
The Conservatives were reelected Oct. 14 with a stronger mandate, but still hold less than the 155 seats that would allow them to pass legislation without support from at least one of the opposition parties. They have 143 of the 308 seats in the House of Common, the Liberals have 76, the Bloc Quebecois, 50 and the NDP, 37. Two seats are held by independents.
The first of the series of votes is on Monday. Lawmakers will vote on a ways and means motion, mainly on a measure to provide temporary tax relief to seniors. The motion will not contain the proposal to scrap subsidies.
"The only reasonable option is that either Harper blinks or the government falls and then the Governor-general asks Harper whether he can go back and do something, or whether we're going into an election," Maioni said.
She doesn't think the Governor-general would ask the opposition to form a coalition government because that would be interfering with the political process.
"It would be highly irregular in our parliamentary democracy. We don't have to rule it out, but it's not the way our democratic process works,"," Maioni said.
The government isn't backing down from its position.
"We're standing our ground," Harper's spokesman, Kory Teneycke, told reporters, describing the back-room maneuvering among the opposition as "highly undemocratic."
"We are prepared to stand before the voters. It's the opposition parties that are proposing to change the government without going to the voters," he said.
Flaherty suggested the ball is in the opposition's court.
"It's up to the opposition parties to decide whether they think that they should defeat the economic plan of the government. This is a serious matter," Flaherty told CBC Television.
Liberal and NDP officials could not be reached for comment. Their public remarks suggest they aren't prepared to back down either.
"We are deadly serious in opposing this measure," Liberal lawmaker John McCallum told CBC Television.
Canadians "might get a Christmas present next week and have the Conservatives turfed, which is exactly what they deserve for their mismanagement of the economy, their failure to bring in an economic stimulus package," NDP deputy leader Thomas Mulcair said in an interview with CBC.
-Nirmala Menon, Dow Jones Newswires; 613-237-0668; nirmala.menon@dowjones.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 28, 2008 16:07 ET (21:07 GMT)

Publié le 28 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones