It's been a wild few days in Canada as our current Conservative government looks like it might be replaced, only 6 weeks after the election, with a center-left coalition made up of the once-governing Liberals and the New Democrats (left-labour.) Canadian politics went in to meltdown Thursday after the Finance Minister announced that, among several budget cuts he was making, public funding for political parties would be slashed. Had it occurred, this would have devastated every party except for the Conservatives, and the reaction was so fierce and so quick that the government has not only retracted the funding cuts, but a bunch of other offensive stuff too.
It might be too late for any retractions though, as it looks like the details of a Liberal-NDP coalition have been hammered out and everyone involved is just waiting for a possible confidence vote that should come some time next Monday. The big question remaining is whether Stephane Dion. the current Liberal leader who led the party to defeat in the last election, will become Prime Minister or be supplanted by either an elder statesman or one of the contenders to be his replacement. If the latter, the smart money is on Michael Ignatieff being Canada's next PM.
If all of this shakes down as expected, it would mean among other things one of the last governments to truly be an obstacle to sane climate policies would be neutralized, meaning a clear road forward for climate policies on both the continental and global level.
