So it would seem as if the Tories are too clever by half, and their arrogance has been the primary protagonist in their defeat. The opposition parties are in the last stages of forming a new coalition government. However the Tories do have a few tricks in their bag, and will do everything they can to resist their fall, including potentially proroguing parliament until the new year.

Yet the door is open and the opportunity for a new political era in Canadian politics is upon us. The Conservative party regards this as an attack from the left, however I think a more accurate description of this conflict is of an urban uprising.

It is often taken for granted that Canadian politics is regional, what with the Bloc Quebecois consistently dominating Quebec and the Conservatives dominating the West.

Yet the real divide is urban vs rural, with the last two elections virtually shutting the Tories out of major Canadian cities, in west, central, and eastern Canada. Even urban Alberta had a few non-Tory MPs elected.

The irony of course is that cities are where the action is, the engine of the global economy, and the front line for the pains and gains that result. In Canada the federal government has either treated the cities with neglect or disdain, limiting and restraining their potential.

Now that this same government teeters on the brink of collapse, their reactionary language will lead them to accuse the opposition of staging a coup d'etat, of hijacking the government for their own agenda.

Well that agenda is the urban agenda, and what we might be witnessing here is the rise of the city state, at least the Canadian version, i.e. non-violent and still within a geographically broad national federation.

A federation comprised of city states would have to be a coalition, as cities are by definition diverse, and these cities would naturally reflect even more divergent cultures. That's why the Liberals, NDP, and BQ would be able to work together. What they share is this urban agenda, which transcends party differences.

Of course this federation would not neglect rural areas, but would on the contrary understand the catalytic role that cities are playing globally, and the need for that power to be both supported and unleashed.

The opportunity in Canada is to take a backward political culture that is both colonial and patrician, and transform that into an innovative and co-operative culture that has at its root the power of the urban environment.

The nature of Canada's current parliament is that only a coalition could bring the urban agenda to power. If effective and stable, this coalition could also set the stage for parliamentary reform and proportional representation that also requires coalitions to govern.

Interesting times indeed, and the question of leadership will determine whether we make it to a new configuration, or whether all these crazy ideas die in the dead cold of the approaching winter. The key will be whether this leadership can be collaborative rather combative.

Myself I'm all for a rotating the role of PM amongst a number of people, including NDP leader Jack Layton, until the Liberal leadership can be settled, whether in May 2009 or via an accelerated process. Too unstable you say? Why have only one person in the highest position of power?

If it were to be one, I'd think John McCallum would get the nod.

Although perhaps I was right initially and the Tories are engineering their own defeat to pass the reins to their opposition at what may be the hardest time in modern history to govern. Although while some might make the suggestion, I doubt there will be protests at the airport to defeat the Tories. Really this has been their government to lose. Now that they're losing it, we'll see how they fight to keep it.