Last week’s column considered the diverting possibility that the Liberals could “lose” the next election but remain in power. That is, they could finish with fewer seats than their Conservative rivals and yet govern with the support of the NDP, as they do now.
The idea is both constitutionally proper – the government is whoever has the confidence of a majority of the House of Commons, not the party with the most seats – and plausible: The Liberals have been stuck at 30 per cent or less in the polls for most of this year and show no signs of breaking out.
