Mr. Harper has seized back the narrative. There is no doubt he stumbled last week when he proposed to withdraw the $1.95/vote subsidy to the political parties. It is a good idea, but the timing was poor. He rattled the opposition's cage and the tiger took a swipe at him.
Thankfully the prospect of the Three Amigos running Canada into the ground has been averted. Thankfully Madame Jean acceded to Mr. Harper's request to prorogue the house until Jan. 26.
In the intervening weeks, the scandalous coalition between the Liberals and the Socialists, propped up by the Separatists, will unravel. It seems the process has already begun.
Mr. Harper and the Conservatives will come out of this somewhat stronger though somewhat appropriately chastened.
The Liberal and the NDP parties, by proving themselves willing to sell Canada out to a separatist party for the sole sake of attaining power, have begun the process of self-destruction. It will be hard for them to recover from such a betrayal of their constituencies and of the country.
The other party which will come out of this stronger is the separatist Bloc Quebecois. They were almost given unlimited access to the financial coffers. Their leader, Mr. Duceppe, must be a hero in Quebec. At the same time, the separatists in Quebec will interpret Mr. Harper's victory as another Anglo-Canadian rebuff and rejection of Quebec.
Mr. Harper's victory will make future Conservative inroads into Quebec more difficult, but it will strengthen the Tory brand in the rest of Canada. The divide between the two solitudes has increased.
