Tidings of comfort and joy

Let's credit Michael Ignatieff for providing a nice stocking stuffer to fans of the democratic coalition, as his year-end message seems to be hinting strongly toward a non-confidence vote in January:

“The ways in which he makes everything a confidence motion is, in our view, unacceptable,” Mr. Ignatieff said.

“He took the wrong signal from the election. The signal he took was that he could try anything he wanted to and he grievously underestimated the Liberal Party of Canada. We've got our act together, got a leader chosen, and he can't keep making these misjudgments of the mood of the House and hope to survive."

Mr. Ignatieff, installed as Liberal Leader earlier this month, expressed pessimism that the Harper government would unveil a budget in January that his party could support...

“The thing that frankly concerns me is that the autumn statement so failed the test of leadership that Canadians required of the situation, that I'm not optimistic that the government will come up with a budget that meets Canada's needs,” Mr. Ignatieff said.

“But I live in hope, as it were, that Mr. Harper will rise to the demands of the hour.”...

He added that Mr. Harper has not given him an answer on whether Mr. Hill and Mr. Goodale will get together in the new year, but he said Mr. Harper needs to let parliamentary committees do their job.

“He has been told in no uncertain terms there's a problem of confidence that isn't just constitutional, but a question of personal relations across the House,” Mr. Ignatieff said.

Of course, it's worth noting that many of the problems mentioned by Ignatieff are ones which won't be resolved before the budget vote takes place. And it would be shocking if Harper, Hill and others didn't make some effort to project an image of cooperation while themselves setting the stage for their next attack on the opposition (just as they did before the fiscal update).

That said, Ignatieff seems to be doing plenty both to raise the bar as to what's expected in the budget and in Parliament generally, and to indicate his willingness to vote Harper down if he falls short. Which means that if Ignatieff sticks to his current path, then the one gift which Canada needs most this holiday season may be set to arrive in the new year.