Scenarios in the House of Commons
:arrow: Possible "Co-operation" in the House of Commons
The Liberal Party of Canada and the New Democratic Party:
This isn't an unlikely combination — they've worked quite well together in the past, notwithstanding the recent showdown of non-confidence in the House. I think that the Grits and the NDP could get quite a bit done together, as they did during the previous Session of Parliament, if the Grits and NDP were in the position to combine in order to let the Rt. Hon. Paul Martin retain prime ministership.
The Liberal Party of Canada and the Bloc Québecois:
This isn't an impossible combination; both parties being left-of-centre, I think that if the Bloc could get passed the scandals involving Québec and the Grits, they could form a "truce" in terms of policy legislation — I wouldn't put more than two or three eggs in this basket, though.
The Liberal Party of Canada and the Conservative Party of Canada:
Not in the next Parliament, at least. Not a chance, in my opinion.
The New Democratic Party and the Bloc Québecois:
Yeah, not gonna count on this combo to any significant extent. It's possible that they could team up for their purposes on same-sex marriage, and other more "liberal"-minded matters of social policy, but other than that, I wouldn't count on anything substantial developing between the two.
The New Democratic Party and the Conservative Party of Canada:
This would be an interesting combination to watch; I could see the NDP "leasing" their support in return for incorporating some NDP flare into the Tories' budget, and major legislative endeavours, but as soon as same-sex marriage, or any other matter of social policy appears before the House...
The Bloc Québecois and the Conservative Party of Canada:
This is quite a likely combination, in my opinion; but only until the Tories start rolling out social legislation, in which case I again assert that the left-of-centre parties are going to pool their resources to make the Tories' life in the Commons a living Hell.
The Left-of-Centre Opposition:
For lack of a better term, if the Tories become the Government, as soon as they begin moving toward rolling back progressive social policy, I could foresee the left-wing parties in the House of Commons banding together to block the legislation — we could see some interesting and "creative" strategies to do this. I wouldn't rule out the defeat of a Conservative Government altogether if they get too aggressive in terms of social policy.
