Nunavut MP warns Tory defeat would cost North

Northern MPs joined the fray this past week as opposition parties formed a potential coalition government and the ruling Conservatives scrambled to hold on to power.

The House of Commons was set to vote Dec. 8 on a non-confidence motion that could oust Stephen Harper's Conservatives and pave the way for a Liberal-New Democratic Party coalition with support from the Bloc Québecois.

Liberal leader Stéphane Dion would serve as prime minister in the proposed coalition, which would govern with a 24-member cabinet, six of whom would be drawn from the NDP caucus. The finance minister would be a Liberal.

Right now, Dion's Liberals hold only 77 seats. Adding the NDP's 37 seats would give the coalition only 114 seats, less than the 143 held by the Tories.

So to make the coalition work, the Liberals and the NDP need support from the Bloc, which holds 49 seats

That amounts to giving a veto to the separatists, Leona Aglukkaq, Nunavut's MP and federal health minister, said in a telephone interview from Ottawa.

Echoing a line taken by most prominent federal Tories this week, Aglukkaq made repeated references to a "separatist coalition" scheming to seize power.

"I think that Canadians chose a leader to run this government and it's Prime Minister Harper…not Dion," she said. "Dion was rejected by his own party, he was rejected by Canadians and Nunavummiut did not vote Liberal, they voted Conservative."

But under constitutional precedent, if the government falls on a confidence motion in the House of Commons, the Governor General may ask the opposition leader to form a government.

On Monday, Dion and NDP leader Jack Layton each wrote to Governor General Michaëlle Jean, saying they're ready to take power.

Jean, who cut short a state visit to Europe to deal with the crisis, could also suspend Parliament until the new year, delaying a confidence vote, or dissolve the House to force another election.

Western Arctic MP Dennis Bevington, a New Democrat, doubted either of those two options is on the table.

"The Governor General needs to respect the majority of Parliament," he said.

Also Monday, Dion and Layton signed an agreement laying out the terms for a coalition government that would run until June 30, 2011.

The Bloc wouldn't have a place in cabinet, and pledged only to vote with the coalition on confidence matters in the House of Commons. In return, the new government would "put in place a permanent consultation mechanism with the Bloc Québecois."

But even that is too much power for separatists, Aglukkaq said, insisting that a three-party coalition is too unwieldy to work.

"When they go out campaigning are the three amigos going to hold hands and campaign on one platform?" Aglukkaq asked. "How are they going to campaign? Are they going to campaign as a separatist coalition or independently or just hold hands and consult each other along the way?"

Bevington said he's "reasonably comfortable" with the prospect of serving in a government backed by the Bloc.

"We're not being pressured," he said. "They [the Bloc] have agreed in the accord to support the confidence votes, which are simply going to be on the budget and the throne speech."

In an editorial sent to news agencies Tuesday, Aglukkaq warned the fall of the Conservative government would cost northerners a new economic development agency, a high Arctic research station and new rules forcing Arctic marine traffic to report their presence to authorities.

But Bevington said northerners would benefit from the coalition, because both the Liberals and NDP promised larger increases to the northern residents tax deduction than the 10 per cent increase contained in the last federal budget.

"One of the primary issues to me is the cost of living. It's killing people," he said.

Kirt Ejesiak, who ran for the Liberals in Nunavut this past October and finished second to Aglukkaq, agreed the coalition would be good for the North if it works to cut the cost of living and reduce poverty.

"I only see good things coming out of this coalition," he said.

Ejesiak likened the situation in Ottawa to Nunavut's consensus-style government, where regular MLAs may vote at any time to topple the government if it tries something "completely irresponsible."

"Most Canadians, I think, are breathing a collective sigh of relief," Ejesiak said.

Ejesiak said he'd consider running again, in the event that a snap election is called. Aglukkaq also said she's prepared to run again.

The power struggle began late last month when the three opposition parties declared they couldn't vote for an fiscal update package tabled by finance minister Jim Flaherty.

The economic update also would have slashed public subsidies for political parties, and suspended the right of federal public servants to strike until 2011. The government later backed down on the two proposals, but by then the opposition was prepared to forge ahead with a coalition anyway.