Opposition leaders announced on Monday, Dec. 1, an agreement to oust the Conservatives in a vote of non-confidence next week and form a Liberal-NDP government with the support of the Bloc Quebecois.

Gov.-Gen. Michaelle Jean is scheduled to return to Canada this week from a European tour in case the Liberals unseat the Harper government.

The Liberals, NDP and Bloc say they were forced to unite after the Conservatives failed to introduce an economic stimulus package during one of the worst financial crises in Canadian history.

PUBLIC APPEAL

The Conservative Party of Canada’s website asks people to attend rallies, call into talk radio stations, sign petitions and write letters to the editor of local newspapers to denounce the coalition.

The website provides suggested topics to include in letters or during calls to radio shows, and provides instructions how to effectively present arguments.

Ottawa-West Nepean MP John Baird said he was forced to bring in two people at his constituency office to handle the flood of phone calls and e-mails his office has received over the past 24 hours.

“It’s 98 per cent livid angry that the Bloc Quebecois would be brought into government,” he said.

He estimates his office has received over 600 calls and e-mails.

It’s not about what the Tories can do to stop the coalition, he said, it’s about what the Canadian people can do.

“I think they’re rising up right across the country,” he said.

Carleton-Mississippi Mills MP Gordon O’Connor is a busy man this week.

“If there’s a hurricane, I’m in the centre,” he said.

The chief whip of the Conservative government is trying to stave off an attempt by the opposition parties to unseat the Tories.

He said the opposition is playing political games in Parliament.

“I have to counter the games,” O’Connor said.

He said it’s outrageous the Liberals and NDP have joined with a separatist party.

“The separatists are there to break up Canada,” he said. “They’re now trying to overturn the election results.”

Liberal leader Stephane Dion has agreed to step in as prime minister of the coalition, a man who was soundly rejected only a month ago during the 2008 federal election, and who received only 10 per cent approval rating from the country in election polls, said O’Connor.

“He has no credibility as prime minister,” O’Connor said. “Yet through back-room deals, if they were to succeed, he would become prime minister.

“This is a time of economic crisis,” he added. “We have a situation where a coalition that is trying to replace us, in turn, is going to replace their leader in a few months.”

Dion has promised to step down as leader of the Liberals in May, allowing the party to hold a leadership convention to potentially select the country’s next prime minister.

O’Connor said the Conservatives may choose to suspend parliament until Jan. 27, when it will introduce the federal budget.

“There’s no way they can move faster than us, so this whole thing is a charade of power – that’s all they want.”

If the Tories fall in a vote of non-confidence, both Baird and O’Connor say Harper shouldn’t have to resign as party leader.

“I think he’s a really fine leader,” O’Connor said. “He’s brought us through many years of struggle.”

During the last election, the Liberals and NDP promised they wouldn’t unite to form a coalition government, charge federal Tories.

“The situation has changed,” said Ottawa South Liberal MP David McGuinty. “It was never our intention . . . that we would be forming a coalition.

“(But) the House of Commons has now expressed in majority form that it does not have confidence in Prime Minister Harper and his government.”

McGuinty said the Conservatives’ recent economic statement is riddled with misleading announcements and doesn’t provide an economic stimulus for the country.

The Liberal-led coalition government will have a prime minister and a cabinet with 24 ministers, six of them appointed by the NDP.

All three parties have agreed to support the government until June 2011.

Dion has promised to drop his Green Shift program, but the coalition government will pursue a North American cap and trade market to limit carbon emissions.

The coalition’s economic stimulus package will include benefits for seniors, improvements to child care and bankruptcy protection and housing, said McGuinty.

“It clearly puts ahead of any partisan interests the interests of the Canadian people,” said McGuinty.

The prime minister has only himself to blame for his current political problems, McGuinty said.

Harper failed to put together an economic stimulus package for Canada, McGuinty said, and he introduced a partisan measure to cut public financing, a decision that promised to cripple the opposition.

 “It reminds me of a maxim (by former American president John F. Kennedy),” he said. “Be careful when you decide to ride the back of a tiger lest you end up inside it.”