This has truly been Stephen Harper's week from hell. One has to go back to the final stretch of the 2004 election campaign — when a lacklustre Conservative performance helped the Liberals snatch a narrow victory from the jaws of defeat — to find a comparable period in Harper's leadership when it seemed everything he touched turns to lead.
The budget debate should have highlighted the strengths of a potential government-in-waiting. Instead, it turned into a game of chicken between the opposition parties with the Conservatives running around like hens with their heads chopped off.
On Monday, Conservative strategists unleashed a storm of controversy when they proposed a plan to short-circuit the debate on so-called conscience issues at the convention.
On Tuesday, Harper had to keep a dozen or more MPs outside the House of Commons for fear that the Bloc Québécois would support his motion on the Liberal budget and thereby precipitate an election.
But on Wednesday it was compounded when the official opposition had to abstain from the final vote on the budget to ensure the survival of the minority government.
All week long, the frantic Conservative manoeuvring overshadowed the budget debate in the Commons. Source.
