Canada's conservative P. M. survives coup attempt Chad Groening

OneNewsNow - 12/7/2008 5:05:00 AMBookmark and Share CanadaA Canadian pro-family leader says he's very pleased that Prime Minister Stephen Harper was able to avert a coup d'etat attempt by a left-wing coalition bent on ousting him from office. Harper avoided a no-confidence vote last week when Canada's governor general allowed him to dissolve Parliament and prevent a takeover by a coalition of liberal parties that wanted to bring down Harper's government less than two months after his Conservative Party strengthened its minority position in the federal elections. Brian Rushfeldt, executive director the Canada Family Action Coalition, says one would expect a coup attempt in developing dictator nations -- but not in a 146-year old democracy. "I think what is happening is there's going to be an extremely severe backlash against the three parties that were negotiating amongst each other to try and take the government over," he predicts. But Rushfeldt says while the coup attempt angered many Canadians and should help Harper secure more Conservative votes in a future election, he is not confident the prime minister can secure enough votes in separatist-minded Quebec to secure a majority government. "Without a number of seats in Quebec it's pretty difficult to elect a majority," the pro-family activist explains. "Ontario will have to go very, very strongly Conservative to overcome the losses in Quebec. So it's going to take the efforts of every Conservative voter in the country to get out and ensure that we do have a majority Conservative government to resolve this problem." Otherwise, says Rushfeldt, otherwise there will be continued gridlock in Parliament.