Subtle pressure?
As in "get out or we will beat the crap out of you"!
The manner in which Dion has been treated is by his own party digusting.
He was a pawn, to be used by the power brokers at the deep end of the Liberal trough and then tossed when he no longer served a purpose.
Now they are touting a realtive unknown and lame duck canadian as the savior of Canada?
They are still missing one very important key here...the PEOPLE of Canada.
Unfortunately to a memeber of the Liberal old boy's club",that doesn't seen to be very important.
BIG mistake.

Yeah, I feel kinda bad for Dion, he's been hung out to dry by his own party. It will be interesting to see how having a new leader will affect this coallition idea.

Can anyone say Trudeau that trust fund kid. Scary!!!!

It looks like Harper got what he wanted out of the deal with the PQ able to breath some new life into the separation cause as a result of Harpers anti-Quebec campaign last week... thereby keeping the bloc in business in parliament as a wedge party. At least the federalists in Quebec were able to secure a majority....

Is the day of good men/women gone?? I really do not see anyone out of any of the parties who stands out?? Why are we continously bombarded with having to vote for people we have no confidence in?? I can not believe that the guy who almost ruined Ontario is one of their choices??? Poor Canada!! Sigh!!

Well,you won't have to worry about the guy who almost ruined Ontario Shellshadow!
He is out of the running.
Like the rest of the no-minds,he bowed out to the power brokers at the top of the dung pile.
It always suprises me how the party system keeps shoving leaders down the throats of canadians whether they want them of not.
We get to elect MP's..not party leaders who may in fact end up as Prime Minister.
Obviously,those at the top of the foodchain don't care what canadians think,they only care about what THEY think will benefit the party itself!
The Liberals have once again shown Canada how self-serving the party system really is!
If it wasn't so pathetic,it would be almost funny!

Perhaps Mr. Ignatieff (sp?) will realize that he should be Leader of the Opposition for a while before trying to usurp the Harper Government and possibly becoming PM within a few months.

I think the coalition will be officially scrapped shortly after he becomes Liberal Leader. I would do that if I were in his shoes. As Liberal leader, I would want to put my own stamp on the party without the influence of that yappy little toy poodle named Layton always tugging on my pant leg. He would be nothing but a distraction for Ignatieff.

Mr. Harper will have a real tough and cunning opposition leader to worry about with Mr. Ignatieff, who is not only smart but aggressive enough to take on anyone who tries to pull the wool over his eyes.

Mr. Dion is an intellectual, a thinker and a decent person who doesn't feel comfortable in mudslinging feasts. Too bad he wasn't an effective politician as well.

The Mulroney/Schreiber affair is going to resurface in February again. Perhaps this time we will get the real goods.

The reason why we have so many terrible politicians as party leaders is simplereally. No matter how good, or competent or honest, or intelligent they are we, as Canadians will do our best to berate and discredit and disrespect them until 'everyone knows' they are corrupt , or stupid , or what have you. We hate our politicians, even the ones we voted for. We also feel entitled to treat anyone in office as our personal whipping toys, throwing barbs at them whenever we feel the urge. We blame them for EVERYTHING wrong in our lives (perhaps so we dont have to take the blame ouselves).
That is the Canadian way. Live with it, but be aware of it as well. Or, if you figure you could do better....Get off your ass and do something about it.
By the way, i admit to being guilty of all of the above.

The Canadian system has turned into a
farce even if we contrast it with its parliamentary system cousine in the
UK. Bloc Quebec with the agenda of a separate Quebec has been calling the
shots recently and a party from one province [i.e, Quebec] will be balancing the power for all Canadians as long as
we have minority governments. This is rediculous.

It is time to adopt a more stable system where the people can elect a president for a number of years, or if we plan to maintain this outdated system let Quebec and BQ leave the union so that we get a more stable system, where a party like NDP [with members from all provinces] balance
the power, even if we have minority governments.

"...It is time to adopt a more stable system where the people can elect a president for a number of years,..."

The USA comes to mind and their system (where the president is ruler, decider, dictator, commander-in-chief and generally adored like an untouchable super idol) is in my opinion the last thing we need.

Our system is way better, and more fun too!