Canada's Election 2011 and a coalition government

The 41st election is underway in Canada. Canadians average an election approximately every two years in the decades beginning in 2000 opposed to the four year terms offered a majority government by law. That brings up the politician’s hated deadlock called minority government.

The political parties might hate minority government,  but it seems an acceptable state for governing according to voters. Without any of Canada’s three main political parties able to garner enough votes to form a majority government, a coalition of parties might be the answer.

Stephen Harper and the new Conservative Government  in fact is a coalition. The current party results from a coalition of the former Progressive Conservative Party of Canada with the Reform Party led by Stephen Harper. The Coalition formed after an agreement between Harper and PC leader Peter McKay whereby some PC members of the coalition became Harper government cabinet ministers. Political coalitions are a fact in Canada since even the Progressive Conservative Party was a coalition of the Progressive and Conservative parties. 

A coalition of the Liberal Party of Canada and the New Democratic Party might be a disappointment to diehard party supporters. Canadian voters on the other hand might want to consider such a change if the current election ends in another minority government stalemate. The country appears weary of the partisan political wrangling between parties keeping the country from looking forward rather than marking time in past traditions awaiting the next collapse of government.

The Bloc of course is always a factor in Canadian elections and tends to create the perfect atmosphere for continued minority governments. If another minority election results in the Harper dreaded coalition of the Liberals and NDP the merger would change the face of Canadian politics  forever bringing about  a new Canadian political party. A taste for new parties is the scenario most frightening to the all old established Canadian political parties since it is already a reality  with the birth of the Alberta Wildrose Party. 

The new party would undoubtedly force the Bloc to change tactics after probably losing leader Gilles Duceppe to the provincial political scene. The more or less conservative leaning Bloc could lose some support in Quebec if the coalition creates a new left of center party with a dedicated voter base.

Regardless of the outcome of Canada’s current election the country will either become more politically conservative or move farther to the center-left with a coalition of the two current left leaning parties.