Stephen Harper's week from hell. One had 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.
Harper had to keep a dozen or more MPs outside the House of Commons for fear that the Bloc Québécois would support his motion to defeat the Liberal budget and thereby precipitate an election. An election wasn't very poular at the time and polls weren't favourable for the Conservatives.
