Conservative myth #4 - The coalition takeover is a coup-de-etat

This one is rich. Technically a coup-de-etat is an unconstitutional takeover, usually by violence, of a lawfully installed government. The Harper Tories have been trying to characterize their defeat and the takeover by the opposition as just such an unconstitutional takeover. This can only be seen in this way if you have no understanding of the Westminster model of parliamentary democracy or as I suspect is the case with the Harper Tories, you're just lying through your teeth. As I have pointed out in previous myth-busting posts, Canadians elect a parliament, that parliament selects the government. So if the people's representatives, the members of that parliament decide that a party no longer has their confidence, those members are constitutionally empowered to select another party, if that party can count on the support of a majority of the members of parliament. With a majority government this rarely if ever happens, again because the members of the majority party generally will vote as a bloc.

With a minority government things are less clear cut. Generally after an election the party with the most seats will form the government, but if a coalition of parties can out vote them, it is legal and constitutional for that coalition to form the government. That is the way our system of responsible government works. Anyone telling you otherwise either doesn't understand this or is lying to you. Either way, this is not a coup-de-etat by any stretch of the imagination, other than having the Maximum Leader replaced with someone likely to be more open to working with all Canadians.