Cutting off public funding meant a higher loss to the conservatives then it did to the other parties. Of course the liberals were anxious to be in power. If they were not there would not have been any meetings regarding a coalition.
Islandpacific, whether cutting off public funding (or indeed, any other measure in the financial statement) was justified or not is beside the point. Opposition parties obviously feel very strongly about it, as they do about banning unions from striking, about economic stimulus etc.
The point is, Harper is in no position to dictate terms, he only has a minority. He should have consulted opposition parties before putting out the financial statement. He probably calculated that since Liberals are not ready to govern, he could bring forth just about anything he wants and get away with it.
He obviously miscalculated. And I don’t think Liberals are anxious to be back in power. They probably would be, after they have elected a leader, but not right now. I think they (rightly or wrongly) feel that they don’t have any other choice, that Harper’s actions have forced this course of action upon Liberals.
Liberals would much rather get their leadership election out of the way first, before they start think of assuming power. But I think this is what made Harper overconfident, made him think he could do anything he wanted and get away with it; there is nobody to oppose him.
Remember how he used to taunt Liberals in the last Parliament when they wouldn’t vote against him? Well, Harper started believing his own rhetoric, he really thought that he could govern like a dictator; opposition will just roll over and play dead.
He did win the election in a sense; he got to form the government. It was his job to be gracious in victory, to reach out to other parties, to engage in consultations. He decided to act like a dictator, he brought this upon himself. He has only himself to blame for the fiscal, nobody else.