By David Ljunggren
OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected Thursday to take the unprecedented step of seeking the suspension of Parliament so he can avoid defeat at the hands of the opposition.
Harper's extreme gambit is the latest development in a constitutional crisis that erupted last week after he tried to cut public financing for political parties, a move that would have hit the opposition particularly hard.
Harper's Conservatives won a strengthened minority in an October 14 election but now face a confidence vote in Parliament Monday they are likely to lose. The left-leaning Liberals and New Democrats signed a deal to defeat Harper and form a coalition government. They are backed by the Bloc Quebecois, which wants independence for French-speaking Quebec.
The opposition -- which accuses Harper of running away from his responsibilities -- says it is also angry that a recent government fiscal update contained few measures to help a Canadian economy hurt by the global meltdown.
Harper now has no choice but to visit Governor General Michaelle Jean -- the representative of Queen Elizabeth, Canada's head of state -- and ask her to suspend Parliament until he can deliver a budget on January 27.
Harper went on national television Wednesday evening to denounce the Liberals and New Democrats for having formed an alliance with the separatist Bloc Quebecois.
"At a time like this, a coalition with separatists cannot help Canada," said Harper. Conservative legislators openly say the opposition members of Parliament are trying to mount a coup and one suggested they were traitors.
"I am deeply worried that we may be heading into a potentially violent situation ... (Harper's) actions are coming dangerously close to inciting mob rule," said Dennis Pilon, a political scientist at the University of Victoria.
Domestic media organizations say they are receiving an unprecedented number of comments from Canadians. While many people are unhappy with the idea of Bloc support for a government, others condemn Harper for triggering the crisis.
"Whether he contrives an exit from his immediate travails over the confidence vote, the Harper era appears to be approaching the end. But before that happens, there is a danger Canadian unity will be harmed," the influential Globe and Mail newspaper said in its lead editorial Thursday.
"Never have Canadians been so badly served by their political leadership," said the Ottawa Citizen.
No prime minister has ever asked for Parliament to be suspended so soon after an election.
Constitutional experts say Jean could well agree to the request, but may place conditions on government spending initiatives until Parliament returns.
"In our day and age for a governor general to second-guess the prime minister, to not accede to his request, would be quite interventionist," said Ed Morgan, a law professor at the University of Toronto.
If Jean says no, Harper, who first took power after a January 2006 election, would have to resign.
If he does survive in office until late January, the first confidence vote on the budget would be in early February.
The Conservatives are launching a full-scale campaign to demonize what they call "the separatist coalition."
An early sign that their pressure might be working came on Wednesday, when Liberal legislator Frank Valeriote told the Guelph Mercury newspaper that he wanted to work with Harper to deal with the economy rather than joining a coalition.
