[LINK] "Dion to lead Liberal-NDP coalition, Liberals confirm"

The chances seem to be good that we'll be getting a Liberal-NDP coalition government.

Liberal caucus members agreed unanimously on Monday that Stéphane Dion will stay on to lead a Liberal-NDP coalition, after the two parties reached a tentative agreement to replace the minority Conservative government.

In an hour-long meeting, Dion received support from all three Liberal MPs vying to replace him as Liberal leader, Michael Ignatieff, Bob Rae and Dominic LeBlanc, the CBC's Susan Bonner reported from outside the House of Commons.

The three leadership candidates emerged from the meeting together and told reporters they agreed to Dion's presence, but insisted the leadership campaign to replace him will continue "in the normal fashion."

Dion, who has been blamed by some for the poor showing of the party in the October election, had agreed to step down in May.

Ignatieff, who is the front-runner to succeed Dion in an upcoming leadership convention, said the three were "at one" in believing "the only leader who can lead us in this context is the duly elected leader of the Liberal party."

New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton arrives for a meeting of his caucus on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Monday to discuss a possible coalition government. (Tom Hanson/Canadian Press)"I support the accord because it's fiscally responsible, it provides responsible economic leadership in tough times and it also conserves the basic principles of national unity, equality that our party has always believed in," he said.

Rae described the caucus meeting as "historic" and "moving," while also saying the deal was "perfectly constitutional" and would present for Canadians "the very best possible government.

The opposition parties say they have lost confidence in Stephen Harper's government after last Thursday's economic update by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty failed to provide a stimulus package for Canadians. Since then, the Liberals had been in negotiations to form a coalition with the NDP, planning to oust Harper's Conservatives in a confidence vote.

[LINK] "A case for coalition"

Over at Eye Weekly, Chris Bilton summarizes the interesting history of party mergers and occasional coalitions in Canadian political history.

Since our government simply refers to "the party with the most seats," and we don’t directly elect a prime minister, the definition of both is somewhat malleable. First off, each party chooses its leader, and the party with the most seats is in charge. Consequently, the party’s leader becomes Prime Minster.

But if Stephen Harper decided to step down as PM, and the party embarked on an epic game of paper-scissors-rock to determine the new leader, that’s their prerogative. Or, if more than half the MPs suddenly abandoned their respective parties and became independents, we’d have anarchy. Come to think of it, it doesn’t really seem all that responsible on our part as voters. But it does mean that at least the government is responsible to whomever we voted into office. And when any majority of parliament members disagrees with the government, they have the option of voting it down or taking over.

Usually, the former happens and we have an election — something annoyingly familiar during this century’s brief political history. Actually, the latter has never happened, until now. But that’s not to say that a coalition is totally unprecedented. Since Canada’s infancy, inter-party mergers have occurred at least as often as we get to host the Olympics.

Towards the end of the American Civil War, Canada’s main parties got together in an effort to reform the entire political system and alleviate the deadlock of French versus English voting. This was also probably not a bad idea if things in the US went, ah, south, and the proto-provinces had to make some diplomatic decisions about their neighbour. Setting aside political feuding, they created what was dubbed The Great Coalition; essentially the precursor to Confederation.

Again during wartime, PM Robert Borden’s efforts to introduce conscription (Canada’s version of the draft) and top up the troops during WWI required a bit of bolstering from some willing opposition members. Creating the Union Government out of Conservative, Liberal and Independent MPs, Borden was able to win the 1917 election, and send more young men to slaughter. OK, so maybe coalitions aren’t always awesome.