Today, Philip Resnick and Reg Whitaker in The Tyee wrote an open letter calling on the Liberal, New Democratic and Green leaders to make such a deal.  While infinitely shorter than the Harper and Flanagan essay, the letter’s tone and suggestions are remarkably similar, especially in its call for electoral cooperation and a coalition government.

Some may cry foul over any coalition government overthrowing a party with a plurality of seats, such as last winter’s ill-fated attempt.  While that coalition arrangement was illegitimate in the eyes of most voters, a coalition that is announced before voters cast their ballots – knowing that such an arrangement will follow should no party win a majority of seats – would be legitimate. The quality of such a government is an entirely separate debate.

One cannot help but see “Our Benign Dictatorship” leap off the page of this open letter in both the diagnose of the “problem” (in their respective times) as well as the prescription for what should be done.

Well, that’s a time warped excerpt of an article jointly penned by Stephen Harper and Tom Flanagan circa 1997, Our Benign Dictatorship (click for the non-time warped full text).  It is a startling observation in a very well written peice by the now prime minister and his mentor that provides a solid analysis of the political situation as it was then.

Times change of course and so do we.  Vindicating Prime Minister Harper’s claims, here is a graph showing how true his words really were.