Opposition 1, Harper 0

This is from the Globe and Mail.

The problem is that those who banded together did not stay together against the bully. The Liberals decided they would keep the bully in power after making a deal with them.
The Conservatives will make periodic reports on the implementation of the budget that the Liberals criticized!
The budget is no doubt better than it would have been if there were not the threat of losing a confidence vote, but that threat would be in existence whether there were or were not a coalition. We are now back at Dion II where Ignatieff with more smoke and mirrors will in effect prop up the Conservative government until such time as he sees the polls are favorable or until Harper decides to feed the Liberals a poison pill so deadly it cannot be swallowed. I am not even sure that this should be called Dion II since it is quite possible that it was the likes of Ignatieff that stopped Dion from pulling the plug on Harper earlier.
It is strange to claim that the opposition won when they kept Harper in power whereas before parliament was prorogued a vote would have toppled his government.


Opposition: 1, Harper: 0
LARRY KAZDAN
February 9, 2009
Vancouver -- If the Liberal-NDP coalition precipitated "radical changes," as Rex Murphy admits, and pushed a dogmatic Conservative Prime Minister squarely into Liberal territory, it can hardly be considered a "massive failure" (Coalition Of Unintended Consequences - Feb. 7). The opposition had little choice but to band together and thereby stand up to a parliamentary bully trying to force through contentious legislation.
When a bully backs off, it's a victory, and Stephen Harper is now in retreat, licking his wounds.