Further Developments in Canadian Politics

In another quick development, the Liberal Party here has now chosen Michael Ignatieff to take over as the Liberal Party leader. This happened much sooner than had been anticipated for this was not supposed to happen until next May when the Liberal Party convention takes place. It had been anticipated that Stephane Dion would remain the leader of the Liberal Party until then. The game changed somewhat when PM Harper received permission to prorogue the Parliament.

It is evident that this change in leadership is an attempt by the Liberal Party to put forth a more appealing face than Stephane Dion to the Canadian public well before Parliament comes back into session next month.

Parliament will re-convene on January 27th at which time two things are expected to happen:

(1) an attempt by the Liberal/NDP/ Bloc Quebecois coalition to call for a no confidence vote in the hopes of toppling the Harper government;
(2) coupled with an attempt by PM Harper to offer an economic package designed to placate some members of the coalition in order to stave off a no confidence vote.

Going back to the Liberal party situation, there was negative reaction here in Canada to Stephane Dion heading the coalition and potentially becoming the next Prime Minister (albeit on an interim basis) in light of his disastrous performance in the most recent Federal election in October. It appears that the Liberal party is addressing this issue by getting Dion to step aside in favor of Michael Ignatieff.

There will be a fair amount of politicking and maneuvering between now and January 27th. Stay tuned for further developments.