It’s to prevent a no confidence vote of his minority government, which went completely nuts following the last election, and attempted to defund the opposition parties, pass strike bans, and fight the downturn with Hoovernomics.
The mask slipped, and it was enough to make the various members of the Liberals, NDP, and BQ decide to form a coalition government, and throw him out.
While I do think that the Conservatives might be able to do something in the next 7 weeks to hold onto power, it would involve dumping Steven Harper and finding someone who is not a serious right wing nutjob as party leader.
As it stands right now, the Conservatives are running around screaming, “Coup”, and saying that it would be a disaster for the BQ to be a part of the government, because they want to secede from Canada (OK, they are right on that one, but the Tories are a worse disaster).
There has not been a government change in Canada without an election since 1924, but it is a legal move, and it’s intended for moments like this.
It should be interesting to see whether the Conservatives can peel off some Libs or BQ, or whether some Tories will move away from Harper.
Any Canadians want to handicap this?