For in Canada the Conservative government of Stephen Harper has survived, after the announcement that the Liberal Party would support it on the budget as amended, instead of trying to bring it down and install an unelected axis of weasel coalition. (Globe and Mail: Tories put on probation; coalition breaks up, Calgary Herald: Tories support Grit budget amendment & Reuters: Canadian government survives budget crisis) This says it all:
"The coalition is dead, it's finished, it's over," said Gilles Duceppe, leader of the separatist Bloc Quebecois, one of the parties that had signed the agreement.And so ends one of the most extraordinary incidents not just in Canadian history (although it's amazing to find Canadians, normally such a well-adjusted relaxed people, getting angry over something other than an ice-hockey match) but in the entire Westminster System. Around the world many constitutional scholars both professional and amateur having been watching the events closely for what they reveal about how much the system can take in practice. But in the final analysis they show that democracy has triumphed over backroom deals.
