OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper has guaranteed the survival of his minority Conservative government for at least another week and is imploring Canadians to reject what he says is an undemocratic and illegitimate coalition.
Opposition leaders, incensed by the government's fall economic update, ignored the prime minister's appeal and were to spend the weekend negotiating the details of a parallel government that could wrest power from the Tories less than two months after the Oct. 14 general election.
Harper ended an extraordinary 36 hours in the national capital by announcing the cancellation of Monday's scheduled opposition day and the delay of a confidence vote on his government's fall economic update.
But his measures only buy the government a reprieve to Dec. 8, when the Liberals, New Democrats and Bloc Quebecois can use their combined majority to vote non-confidence.
The prime minister is appealing to public opinion to turn the tide by then.
"The opposition has been working on a backroom deal to overturn the results of the last election without seeking the consent of voters," Harper said late Friday in a statement in the foyer of the House of Commons.
"They want to take power, not earn it."
He noted the Liberals would lead the coalition after winning the party's lowest share of the popular vote since Confederation and that the Bloc -- "a party that wants to destroy the country" -- would provide critical support.
Harper's procedural tactics avert, at least temporarily, a potential constitutional crisis whose particulars would be unique in Canada's federal parliamentary history.
Events were changing almost by the minute.
Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean was making contingency plans Friday for a speedy return to Rideau Hall from a European tour should the Harper government fall.
Furtive, tripartite talks were taking place off Parliament Hill by emissaries of the three opposition parties.
And the government was scrambling to contain a crisis largely of its own manufacture.
The fuse was lit when the Liberal Opposition served notice Friday of a motion declaring non-confidence in Harper's Tories that indicated a "viable alternative government" was ready to go.
"In light of the government's failure to recognize the seriousness of Canada's economic situation and its failure in particular to present any credible plan to stimulate the Canadian economy and to help workers and businesses in hard-pressed sectors such as manufacturing, the automotive industry and forestry, this House has lost confidence in this government and is of the opinion that a viable alternative government can be formed within the present House of Commons," says the motion, which has the approval of the NDP and the Bloc.
Yet talks on the shape and form of a coalition were still in their infancy and were expected to continue through the weekend.
Only the broadest outlines of a single-minded focus on economic policy, and the need for immediate stimulus measures, had been agreed to by late Friday afternoon.
"I understand the global economy, the Canadian economy is fragile," said Liberal John McCallum, the party's finance critic and a former chief economist with Royal Bank.
"And so I want the business community, the financial community to know that should we form the government that the stability of our financial system and our economy will be uppermost in our mind, every step of the way."
Some Liberal sources were suggesting Liberal Leader Stephane Dion would have to lead the coalition, a point seized upon by Harper.
"The opposition has every right to defeat the government, but Stephane Dion does not have the right to take power without an election," said Harper.
"Canada's government should be decided by Canadians, not backroom deals."
But "Prime Minister Dion" is by no means assured if there is a coalition.
Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe said it is not up to the smaller coalition partners to determine the Liberal leadership -- and thus the prime minister -- and a senior NDP strategist agreed.
Failure to sort out the convoluted internal leadership politics of the fractious Liberals could be Harper's salvation.
The party has a leadership convention scheduled for May 2 to replace Dion. Among his would-be successors, Toronto MP Bob Rae said Friday he hopes that he, Michael Ignatieff and Dominic LeBlanc can find a common front on the issue.
The proposed Liberal non-confidence motion came after a frantic 36 hours in which the Harper government tabled a highly provocative fall fiscal update that failed to include any significant economic stimulus measures -- but did poke a stick in the eye of opposition parties and government unions.
A combative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said Friday the government won't back down on a single measure, despite the opposition threats.
"We're staying on track," Flaherty said in Toronto.
"We were just elected by the people of Canada with an increased number of seats, the people of Canada clearly viewed our party as the best party to steer our country through what is a serious economic downturn, and we put forward yesterday, after deliberation, our plan for the country.
"So we expect it to have the support of Parliament given the will as expressed of the Canadian people."
But the government was evidently scrambling to avert a self-induced political catastrophe. An unprecedented flurry of Conservative media briefings and interviews endeavoured to paint the opposition fury as a mere fit of pique over lost public subsidies.
"We take what we're hearing at face value, that the opposition is threatening to change the government without going back to the people, two months after a general election, for the sole reason of protecting their entitlements," said Kory Teneycke, Harper's director of communications.
"Our government is focused on the economy."
The fiscal update included a measure to strip political parties of their $1.95-per-vote public financing, which would cement the financial supremacy of the Conservative party and its state-of-the-art fundraising machine.
The update also would deny federal public-sector unions the right to strike for the next three years, and promised to reform the "costly and litigious" pay equity regime.
Opposition MPs said Friday that even if those positions were reversed, the absence of any immediate economic stimulus measures dooms the Conservative plan.
"This is why we're having those (coalition) discussions, because we just can't accept the proposals made by the government yesterday," said the Bloc's Duceppe.
While Liberals and New Democrats discussed who would sit in a coalition cabinet, Duceppe said his party's demands are simple.
"I mean to have come with stimuli concerning the economy. To have a real plan for manufacturing and the forestry sector. To have a better conditions for the employment insurance and so on."
Liberal MP Bob Rae said Thursday's fiscal update shows a "complete lack of any leadership" on stimulating the economy.
Moreover, the "numbers are completely unreliable ... and they're based on completely speculative notions" about how much money the government might get by selling unspecified assets.
"I think this really raises severe questions about the credibility of the government and frankly the credibility of the minister," said Rae.
Whatever befalls the Conservatives, many non-partisan observers say the government is in a bed of its own making.
"Here is Harper, who has promised to be lovey-dovey and make goo-goo eyes at the opposition and increase the civility of Parliament -- and the first thing that his government does is blatantly partisan and aimed at hurting the opposition," said Ned Franks, professor emeritus at Queen's University and one of Canada's pre-eminent scholars on parliamentary procedure.
