The consolation here is the 3 party coalition did get 53% of the popular vote, the BQ could have avoided this by holding out on the confidence vote agreement with Harper from day one after the election, and forced the Governor General to allow the Liberals an attempt to form a government.
The Canadian political class just lost a mild mannered well heeled economics professor and replaced him with a thin skinned elitist prig who can’t speak English and can’t articulate any economics policy in French, in the middle of an economic crisis.
This can’t end well. We can expect Alberta and Quebec to get exceedingly bellicose in the coming year.
To be honest under Canada’s system of government which is based on the government securing the confidence of Parliament periodically, if a government falls another election will be called pronto unless elements of the opposition can muster enough support in the eyes of the Governor-General to itself form a government. If then the ‘new’ government was defeated then a new election would be called by the Governor-General. With a coalition being formally signed by the Liberal Party, the NDP, and the Bloc Quebeccois the latter won’t happen. Yes, traditionally the party with the most seats in Parliament is supposed to form a government but it is not required. Thus what the ‘coalition is proposing to do is NOT illegal; again it is not illegal; undemocratic yes, Machiavellian yes, power-grabbing yes. Again this has the fingerprints of Obama all over it.