Guess third time isn't the charm

[Sandeep Chauhan]

I wonder if Stephen will quit. Will he become so demoralized upon realizing that he's the reason that the Conservative party has another minority government he'll step down? Probably not, he's already talking about a move forward. I guess you have to admire that, even when the facts are right in front of him he'll blithely ignore them.

Of course if I weren't a cynic I'd be pissed off right now.

[Eric Pettifor]

He's got the next best thing to a majority. To defeat anything he wants to get past, the other three parties will have to work together, whereas he only needs to get one of the other parties on side and it sails through.

The Liberals aren't going to want to force another election until they can find a leader (seems like they've been without one now for some time), so Harper can bluff and call everything a confidence vote and they'll continue their sulk strategy of not voting.

And given that they're not really 'the Conservatives', but just the Canadian Alliance under a venerable name they got at a going out of business sale, I'd say he's done very well. I thought Reform was a flash in the pan protest phenomenon the right used to spank Mulroney, and spanking done that they'd go away. But instead they morphed into a national right wing party whose leader is prime minister.