OTTAWA—Sit down, order a double-double decaf, swallow a Valium if you must, and think of this current political unpleasantness as a learning experience. Even as it lurches from partisan miscalculation to constitutional crisis, the power struggle still unfolding on Parliament Hill is teaching the country things about itself it badly needs to know.

Some of those things Canadians intuitively grasp and now must cognitively seize. One is that Stephen Harper, no matter how shrewd or wonkish, is proving too partisan, polarizing and mean-spirited to lead a nation of distant regions and diverse opinion. Another is that the Liberals, who missed the seminal point that Stéphane Dion is unacceptable as even interim prime minister, are far from ready to resume power.

Other revelations are less predictable. Of those, the most sobering is that our democratic literacy is so weak that suddenly concerned citizens are struggling and often failing to understand events in their capital. That makes them vulnerable to the spin, misinformation and remanufactured truth now inflaming passions and pushing tempers into the red zone.

Whatever its limitations, the proposed Liberal-NDP coalition is not, no matter how many times Conservatives call it a coup, undemocratic, un-Canadian or a threat to national unity. It's the unusual yet legitimate result of the elected majority imposing its will on a minority that recklessly squandered House of Commons confidence.

Does the enabling support of a separatist party create strange and unappealing bedfellows? Yes. Does that unnecessary and foolish photo-op, the one with Liberal, NDP and Bloc leaders, create an easily exploited impression of co-conspirators? You bet. But does that negate the right of those parties to try to govern when another falters? No. Or does it mean only the leader whose followers won the most seats in the last election can try to govern? Absolutely not.

Blame it on inattention, the concentration of power at the political centre or pollution from U.S. presidential campaigns, but the delusion stalks the land that we-the-people directly elect prime ministers who then enjoy a personal mandate to govern. We do not and they do not. Leaders are chosen by their parties and serve as long as they hold Parliament's approval.

This Prime Minister is sorely testing his party's patience and faces Commons defeat after failing to provide the economic stimulus the country expected while opportunistically deconstructing the public funding system now sustaining his rivals. Instead of the collegial, consensual government Harper promised, Canada now has a conflict that it seems only the Governor General can resolve. Choosing from one of three unpalatable options, she can force the second $300 million federal election in three months, let a fragile coalition assume power or allow the Harper government to escape immediate censure by sending MPs home to cool down while restricting his capacity for partisan mischief in their absence.

In effect, Michaëlle Jean must square a circle with a large circumference. Canadians are hungry for a government that will urgently act to protect their jobs and stimulate an economy stumbling into recession. They have precious little appetite for a Dion-led coalition.


    Whatever she decides, Jean has in her hands a teaching moment. She can remind Canadians that this is a parliamentary democracy, one they have a civic duty to understand and that this Prime Minister must learn to respect.

    James Travers' column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

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