I can say that again

Back on November 10th, 2005, I had a post on the feasibility of handing the keys to 24 Sussex to Stephen Harper ifs Paul Martin lost a confidence vote. In a post called "Enough Playing Nice... Lets Have a Coup!" I said:

In the wake of Jack Layton's ''Common Sense Revolution ...er .. Solution" the constitutional validity of his plan is being questioned. If the united opposition is serious, there is a real solution. Use the Conservatives opposition day next week to declare non-confidence in the Liberals. Then inform the governor general that the three opposition parties have an agreement in place and the Conservatives are ready to form a government.

Apparently I wasn't too far off base, and a new book by governor-general Adrienne Clarkson suggests she was prepared to do the same, although by the time I suggested it she was not looking at that possibility:

Martin's Liberal government had been reduced from a majority to a minority in the 2004 election. If Martin had attempted, within six months of that election, to dissolve Parliament and call another election, he would have been stymied by Clarkson.

The governor-general has few real powers. But that is one of them. He or she can deny a prime ministerial request to dissolve Parliament and call an election when a minority government is defeated in the House or simply wants to resign.

Instead, the governor-general can invite the opposition leader to attempt to form a government. In such a scenario in 2004, Stephen Harper's Tories, with the help of some other parties, could have formed a government without having to face the electorate.

That election was June 28, 2004, so Clarkson is suggesting that by January 2005 she would have let Martin go to the polls. However, you have to wonder what would have happened if Harper and Layton had approached governor-general Clarkson, as I suggested.

via Hespeler