Sure, you can coalesce a government, but can you finish my Human Rights paper?

I just finished a long and painful paper. I’m tried of writing and I want to go to bed. So what keeps me up at night?

All signs indicate we’re heading for our very first federal coalition government. Before you Canadian history wiz-kids jump all over me, I would distinguish current affairs from the 1917 Unionist coalition. In that case, Liberals left the liberal party to join the conservatives in the Union party. That wasn’t quite a coalition government.

No, in this case, the three opposition parties have drafted an agreement where all three opposition parties are moving to replace Harper’s Conservatives while maintaining their distinct political identities. Although there is plenty of precedent for this in Europe, Canada has never seen the likes of this kind of agreement before.

My reaction? Extremely mixed. The political scientist in me is practically salivating at the intrigue and excitement. There are so many layers.

For starters, we will see a real shift in tone from the liberal leadership campaign. Now, each candidate is running to be the next Prime Minister. The language will shift from “rebuilding the party” to “focusing the government.” I’m not so sure this shift will be positive for the liberals. They are in desperate need to rebuild and reshape the entire party. Then again, inheriting a government might be the “umph” needed to drive the party forward.

The relationship between the NDP and the Liberals will be fun to keep tabs on. Each party will struggle to maintain its own unique identity. There will be calls to actually unite the left to form one super party. I suspect such calls will go unheeded. Jack Layton will use this opportunity to show Canadians his government is capable of leading the country. Both parties will have to cooperate while keeping an eye out for private interests. The Liberals, for example, will struggle to separate themselves from the NDP enough to prove they are ready to govern on their own.

The place for the Bloc Quebecois is puzzling. The Bloc has registered support for the Liberal/NDP government but declined to become part of the coalition. It will be interesting to see how the Governor General reacts to this. The Liberal/NDP government will comprise of just 114 seats. The Conservatives, on the other hand will remain the largest party at 143 seats.

You can bet that when Stephan Harper makes his pitch for an election, to the Governor General, he will be arguing that no party (or coalition) other than the largest coalition should have the right to govern.

I suspect the GG will let the coalition government take a shot at governing primarily because it has been just 2 months since the last election. If the timing had been any different, however, Harper’s arguments would be hard to overlook.

Finally, I’ll be watching for Conservative backlash against the leader that pushed the party over the edge with his power politics. I would expect the Conservatives to rally against the left wing parties in the house and support Harper for the time being. However, there will be noise, amongst the party faithful, as to how much longer Harper has at the helm.

So the mixed part? The Canadian citizen in me is very disappointed. I, along with my other fellow Canadian voters, sent these politicians to the House to see us through tough economic times. Whether you voted Conservative, NDP, Liberal, Bloc or Green, your vote helped make up the playing field that resulted from the 2008 election. That playing field included a Conservative minority government, with a Liberal, NDP and Bloc opposition. Canadians spoke and instructed the politicians to work together to get the job done.

It was easy to predict that Harper would continue to play at his sharp political game. He had been granted a mandate to do so and it worked well, for him, in the past. However, his more recent power play so obviously overshot his authority that I wonder if he was ever willing to cooperate to being with. He has been so concerned with entrenching Conservative institutions he forgot there were strict limitations to his power.

No party can claim the moral high ground on this issue. Viewing media photographs of the Layton, Dion and Duceppe agreement left me with an unsettling feeling. I saw three wealthy, white, old men plotting the course of my country without a legitimate, democratic mandate from the Canadian people. When Dion presented himself for consideration for Canada’s top job, the Canadian electorate very clearly said “No, not you.” Failing to fairly win the hearts of Canadians in the election, opposition parties are going to seize power.

This should concern you whether you voted Conservative, Liberal, NDP or Bloc. Your vote, something that struggles to find voice anyway, meant even less today. It doesn’t matter how you participated in the democratic process, three white, wealthy, old men decided they knew better.

Shame on you, Harper, for failing to foster respect and trust in the government institution. Shame on you, Layton, Dion and Duceppe, for using my ballot as toilet paper.

In these next few formative and important days (days that will likely lead up to Canada’s first coalition government) the political scientist in me will be obsessively listening for more news. The voting Canadian citizen, on the other hand, can hardly stand to watch.