Liberals could welcome Paul Martin back into party's inner circle, local MP says
By David Fleischer, Staff Writer

While coalitions are tenuous, the Liberals, NDP and Bloc Quebecois agreed to support each other for a minimum of 18 months. Mr. Wilfert also said Liberals will hold all the key economic cabinet posts and make sound economic policy their top priority.

While Mr. Wilfert may be getting ahead of himself, as a political imbroglio overtakes Ottawa, threatening to bring the government down, local MPs are staking their ground.

For York-Simcoe Conservative MP Peter Van Loan, also the newly-minted public safety minister, it’s baffling that his elected government could be replaced by a Liberal party coming off its second-lowest election tally, in alliance with the separatist Bloc Quebecois.

“For me, the central thing has to be what this means for Canada,” he said.

Mr. Van Loan was back in the riding last weekend and citizens he talked to were surprised and angry at the situation, he said.

His cabinet-mate, Thornhill MP Peter Kent, was even more forceful describing what he regarded as a “naked power grab” by the opposition.

While acknowledging the combined votes of the opposition parties represent a majority of voters, Mr. Kent said no one voted for those parties to work in a coalition and described it as an “unholy alliance.”

“However outraged or offended they may be by behaviour, there’s no excuse to behave in an undemocratic manner,” he said.

“It’s not undemocratic. It’s a fundamental point of the British parliamentary system,” countered Markham Liberal MP John McCallum.

The prime minister must have the confidence of the majority of MPs, he said.

“This is not our creation . . . in a minority government, the prime minister has to govern based on the will of Parliament,” Richmond Hill Liberal MP Bryon Wilfert agreed.

The situation began when Finance Minister Jim Flaherty unveiled his government’s economic statement last week. It was dismissed by opposition parties, while including measures to cut taxpayer funding for parties and to temporarily ban public sector strikes.

However, the government has bowed to public opposition and stepped back from the funding for political parties proposal. Mr. Flaherty will also re-table his economic statement next month.

In the meantime, this week’s confidence vote has been postponed until next Monday.

The lack of an economic plan in lieu of “ideological barbs” came as a surprise to Mr. Wilfert, one of the longest serving Liberals in the house.

“I expected we’d be back and working collaboratively, hopefully in a more constructive House of Commons,” he said.

“The government response was extremely ideological, extremely political and showed no willingness to deal with the real issues of people losing their jobs, their savings.”

Mr. McCallum also said the pressing economic crisis necessitated a more cogent government response.

“This government had every opportunity to act . . . and yet it did nothing for the economy,” he said.

“They have not provided credible proof they are going to act on, what for us, has been the central issue, which is to support the economy through fiscal stimulus.”

Despite removing most of the elements which upset the opposition parties, it did not stop the Liberals and NDP from unveiling a coalition pact Monday night. It’s something Mr. Wilfert is optimistic about.

“This may work, it may not,” Mr. Wilfert acknowledged. “In the short term, it’s certainly sustainable.”

While expressing some personal hesitation about working with a separatist party, he emphasized it is “simply an agreement on voting” and the BQ are not in the cabinet.

“Obviously we have major disagreements . . . but essentially Stephen Harper has pushed us together,” Mr. McCallum said.

When asked if the controversial plans should have been tabled in the first place, Mr. Van Loan said the opposition’s persistence means we are past the point where that is relevant.

“Everything they objected to is off the table. All that’s left is a power grab with the separatists,” he said.

Mr. Kent said the ideas were all important to Canadians and he was shocked at the opposition for digging in their heels. However, their removal showed his government is flexible, he said.

The coalition cabinet is expected to consist of 18 Liberals and 6 NDP members.

A former defence minister, Mr. McCallum is reported to be one of those in line for a post but he said he has not been approached and it is premature to know the precise nature of the government.

Prominent Liberals, such as John Manley and Frank McKenna and former Saskatchewan NDP premier Roy Romanow, could also be included in a coalition government, Mr. Wilfert said.

But there is still time to avert a disaster, Mr. Van Loan said, adding a resolution is out of the government’s hands.

“I think (a resolution) depends on whether that lust for power by the Liberals is so great that they’ll ignore the last election, ignore Canadians and ignore the best interests of the country,” he said.

Mr. Kent similarly hoped the opposition will take the days between now and the vote to consider what is best.

“They’ve got to back down,” he said.

“They have absolutely no legitimacy . . . Here’s the party of Laurier and Trudeau behaving like a bunch of banana republic brigands.”

Mr. McCallum held out the slimmest of hopes the government would come around.

“One never says never in politics but at this point it would be difficult for them to come up with a credible stimulus,” he said.

“It’s too late in the sense it didn’t need to be this way,” Mr. Wilfert said.

We won’t know for certain what will happen until next week. On Monday, the confidence vote takes place in the House of Commons.

Under the constitution, the government serves at the pleasure of the Queen, and her representative, the Governor General.

It would be up to Mr. Harper to go to her and say he has lost the confidence of the House.

He can request an election, but it will be up to Michaëlle Jean to approve the request or ask the a coalition to govern.

She can also grant a request to prorogue, which would end the current session in the house.

An anti-coalition rally takes place in front of Queen’s Park at noon Sunday.

A pro-coalition rally takes place at Nathan Philips Square at the same time.