Familiar

There's a story in the Globe and Mail today revealing that in the event of a Conservative minority win, Paul Martin may well stay on as Prime Minister on the advice of the Governor-General:

The Governor-General, Adrienne Clarkson, has been advised that if there is not a clear winner on Monday, she should opt for a lineup of parties with the best chance of governing rather than one that could lead to parliamentary chaos.

That could mean persuading Liberal Leader Paul Martin to seek a coalition or other commitment from the NDP and the Bloc Québécois, even if the Conservatives win more seats than the Liberals.

I'm sure I read this somewhere before.

They also mention she must consider popular opinion:

But the final decision, if she has to make it, will be a political one in which she and her advisers take into consideration the number of seats each party obtains, popular votes, and polls reflecting what people want.

Again, this rings a bell.

As I've said over and over, the chances of Canada having a Conservative-led coalition are slim. A further issue, which I've not seen mentioned anywhere, is whether the Governor-General would be irresponsible in allowing a separatist party, the Bloc Quebecois, to hold sway over a party, the Conservatives, who already favor increasing provincial power at the expense of federal. The Governor-General is supposed to be the Queen's representative in Canada, and it seems unlikely to me that the Queen would consider allowing a party to wield influence who were elected by the people of only one province and who stand for the destruction of the country itself. While calling this a "constitutional crisis" might be a little hysterical, it's certainly, as Ned Flanders would say, a dilly of a pickle.