This is almost certainly a last-ditch effort on Harper's part to save the government. Time and time again, he's proven to be an incompetent leader at best, and making a mockery of the country at Copenhagen, the UN, with foreign relations and really any forward thinking at all. The problem is that Ignatieff has proven to be a terrible choice for the liberals, and the NDP are still too far left to be a viable choice. I'm sure that if there was a competent liberal leader, we would have had a liberal government a year ago. Actually, if the Greens changed their platform, even temporarily, they might see a huge increase in the polls. I think that a majority of the country wants to do something about climate change, and a majority of the country wants it to be stronger internationally and have better infrastructure. And there's definitely a way to do all of this.
It's probably coming high time to overhaul the way our government works. A century ago, we were seeing problems with the highly federalized system that we use, mainly in English-French relations. Ever since then, the problems between the Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, the West, and the North have become stretched to the point of breaking this country and stopping the political system in it's tracks. Problems with our head of state and the upper house are more apparent than ever as well, and they need to be fixed.
Right now, we really need a visionary PM. Someone that will fix the political system, as well as get to work on climate change, building tonnes of infrastructure, strengthening international relations, helping developing nations, and working on the economic power of the country all at once. I don't think we've ever had a PM with this much work on their hands. I'd love to take on such a challenge, but I doubt even a 30-something PM could get elected, not to mention with no political experience at all. But I'm not seeing anyone currently at the head of politics that seems to be up to that challenge. Is there anyone?