The Leader of the Official Opposition has put the Harper government on notice. The prime minister must cancel the scheduled reduction in the corporate income tax (worth $10 billion in lost revenue over three years) in the upcoming federal budget, or the Liberal party will vote against his government. In this case, unless it gets the (unlikely) support of the NDP or the Bloc in a budget vote, the Harper government will fall, triggering a Spring election.

When will the Liberals and the NDP get it? Without some kind of accord between these two parties, the country is locked into a kind of political version of the movie Groundhog Day -- doomed to repeat the same depressing, cynical and destructive politics day-in, day-out until our democracy is so damaged that no one will bother voting.

Watching the comedy of federal politics is getting less and less amusing all the time.

Most of us are getting cranky because the show is lapsing into pandemonium, as we wonder whether there's some kind of proper ending to it in which the country is adequately governed or whether the prospect is for endless slapstick with sinister and costly twists.

It's not just that the Harper government is now entering the realm of the ridiculous -- the uproar over the $1.9-million "fake lake" pavilion for the G20 summit will serve as handy shorthand for a troupe whose tricks are no longer working - but that the divided opposition can do little to threaten it despite commanding two-thirds of the Canadian electorate.

The real business of government is to win the next election. You do not have to channel Machiavelli to understand that prime ministers weigh the impact of government decisions by looking ahead to how what ministers do today will affect the next campaign. As the Canadian Press reported this week, the Conservatives have imposed an elaborate scheme to manage public opinion.

Canada is in the midst of a crisis in democracy unique in its history. There is simply no other historical example that one can compare it to. It is multi-faceted and it affects every aspect of our national politics and political discourse. It is inexorably eroding the political fabric of the country and therefore our viability as a democratic nation.