[FanIn80]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/...p-spector.html

How Gov. Gen. Jean could possibly decide now that a coalition led by an interim leader and so lacking in democratic legitimacy could provide stable government to Canadians is beyond me.

On October 14, Canadians selected a minority Conservative government. While more people voted for the three opposition parties than for Harper, no one voted for the coalition that it is being proposed; indeed, all three parties explicitly denied during the campaign they would ever consider it.

If Jean were to decide to hand power over to a Liberal-led coalition under Stéphane Dion, many Canadians would feel that this is precisely the outcome they rejected barely two months ago.

Conservative voters would be furious. Many Western Canadians would feel that the government had been stolen from them. Outside Quebec, there would be strong resentment against a party dedicated to breaking up Canada having such a key supporting role in governing the country.

We also shouldn't overlook the fact that Michaëlle Jean was appointed to her position by former prime minister Paul Martin and therefore the optics of her restoring Liberal rule would be terrible.

Critics would not just stop there. At the time of her appointment, she also held French citizenship, which she wisely renounced in the ensuing controversy.

There was also considerable controversy over whether she and her spouse, Jean-Daniel Lafond, had harboured separatist sympathies; in his case at least, few of those who know him believed the denials.