Eh, I doubt Harper will touch health care. Even in Alberta support is higher for better funding medicare than privatising it. It's one of the few things he could do in the first two years that would still have people eager to vote against him in 2015.
But no, no recall. He won, fair and square, and we shall all have to deal with it. I imagine the Conservatives will lose the next election because at that point they'll have been in power a decade and even without any massive screwups people will be tired of them at that point, much like they were with the Liberals (who were generally well-regarded outside the Prairies and Quebec at the time) in 2004-5. All the opposition parties will have to do is look like a reasonable government in waiting after that long of Conservative rule, much like Chretien did.
The question is which opposition party will it be? The real difference for the Liberals is not that they got destroyed, but that they are no longer the government-in-waiting. They have never been lower than second place, and they have always benefitted from the fact that in the crunch, people who might vote NDP or other third party as protest would shift votes to the Liberals because they are the ones that can win. This was a major source of Liberal strength and NDP weakness for the last 50 years, but now it's broken, quite possibly forever. The Liberals can't run in the next election, even against an unpopular Conservative government, with "Vote for us because we are the only viable alternate government" - unless the NDP has utterly collapsed in the meantime (not improbable, given over half the NDP MPs are rookie members from a notoriously fickle Quebec, many of whom would not have been properly vetted as candidates since they were only warm bodies at the beginning of the election, not expected to have any chance to win). Even then it'll be hard. Liberal invincibility is shattered. They aren't the Natural Governing Party anymore - by next election, they'll have to stand for something else, and they have to have a dramatic increase in fortune by so doing. If they don't do that, I seriously believe they're finished.
In a sense, this means the majority government is actually a reasonably good situation for the Libs (if they had to drop to 34 seats, anyway). It gives them time to rebuild, to take their time picking a leader (who, if they have any sense, won't be Bob Rae or Justin Trudeau), to reorganise their financial structure from the ground up and rethink how to direct and protray the party brand in the future - without having to worry about fighting another election at any time and thereby being constantly in "campaign mode" as they have been since 2004. It also gives time for the current NDP euphoria to cool off and for people to take a good long look at them and what they stand for other than "Not the other two parties". None of this guarantees any sort of Liberal resurgence, but it does give them an opportunity - and Harper's sights are going to be set firmly on destroying Layton rather than whoever the next Liberal leader is, so that's also some breathing room. Still, I only give them 50/50 odds, I think - and it depends a lot on the NDP self-destructing.
But no, no recall. He won, fair and square, and we shall all have to deal with it. I imagine the Conservatives will lose the next election because at that point they'll have been in power a decade and even without any massive screwups people will be tired of them at that point, much like they were with the Liberals (who were generally well-regarded outside the Prairies and Quebec at the time) in 2004-5. All the opposition parties will have to do is look like a reasonable government in waiting after that long of Conservative rule, much like Chretien did.
The question is which opposition party will it be? The real difference for the Liberals is not that they got destroyed, but that they are no longer the government-in-waiting. They have never been lower than second place, and they have always benefitted from the fact that in the crunch, people who might vote NDP or other third party as protest would shift votes to the Liberals because they are the ones that can win. This was a major source of Liberal strength and NDP weakness for the last 50 years, but now it's broken, quite possibly forever. The Liberals can't run in the next election, even against an unpopular Conservative government, with "Vote for us because we are the only viable alternate government" - unless the NDP has utterly collapsed in the meantime (not improbable, given over half the NDP MPs are rookie members from a notoriously fickle Quebec, many of whom would not have been properly vetted as candidates since they were only warm bodies at the beginning of the election, not expected to have any chance to win). Even then it'll be hard. Liberal invincibility is shattered. They aren't the Natural Governing Party anymore - by next election, they'll have to stand for something else, and they have to have a dramatic increase in fortune by so doing. If they don't do that, I seriously believe they're finished.
In a sense, this means the majority government is actually a reasonably good situation for the Libs (if they had to drop to 34 seats, anyway). It gives them time to rebuild, to take their time picking a leader (who, if they have any sense, won't be Bob Rae or Justin Trudeau), to reorganise their financial structure from the ground up and rethink how to direct and protray the party brand in the future - without having to worry about fighting another election at any time and thereby being constantly in "campaign mode" as they have been since 2004. It also gives time for the current NDP euphoria to cool off and for people to take a good long look at them and what they stand for other than "Not the other two parties". None of this guarantees any sort of Liberal resurgence, but it does give them an opportunity - and Harper's sights are going to be set firmly on destroying Layton rather than whoever the next Liberal leader is, so that's also some breathing room. Still, I only give them 50/50 odds, I think - and it depends a lot on the NDP self-destructing.