“Fiction,” cries Jack Layton. “Ridiculous,” sneers Michael Ignatieff. “Empty chatter,” harrumphs Bob Rae. Gee, there must be something to this talk of a Liberal-NDP merger!

So how does the word “Liberal Democrat” fall on your ears? The ND Party, no less. It does have a certain ring to it, but how loud and how far that ring will carry is anyone’s guess.

The Ottawa political class, of course, is denying all this. But if you step outside and glance to the East you just might see that big balloon filled with hot air sailing over the Rockies as the politicos and apparatchiks of the Ottawa beltway try to turn themselves inside out to break the political impasse that’s paralyzing politics in the nation’s capital.

Let’s face it. You don’t need a political science degree to know that federal politics have stagnated in this country. Neither leader of the two main parties in this country commands enough support of the Canadian people to elect a majority government. Conservative leader Stephen Harper at least commands the support of his party. Her does it with a vengeance, in fact. But Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff doesn’t even have the confidence of his party, little alone the country. And there can only be one result from this situation.

Stalemate. And it’s a stalemate showing every sign of living longer than Queen Elizabeth herself – God bless her -- and that’s a long time. Hence all the talk of mergers, coalitions, strange bed fellows et al.

Personally, I’m not entirely unsatisfied with the situation the way it is because I don’t regard minority governments as a form of leprosy or the Bubonic Plague. When you have a minority government, you no longer have an elected dictatorship that can essentially do anything it wants with its majority. And when you have a heavy-handed, anal-retentive type prime minister like Stephen Harper that’s not a bad thing. It also means that the opposition, and the many viewpoints it represents, can have a real influence on government policy and not just a powerless peanut gallery.

What’s wrong with that? Quite honestly, I don’t think politics in this country has matured to the point that public policy can be created by a political partnership instead of an elected majority led by an ideologue ensconced in the Prime Minister’s Office and where the opposition is marginalized and the leader’s own backbenchers are “nobodies” as Pierre Trudeau once famously said.

You may think the above sounds a mite harsh, but it’s the reality of politics in Canada today, especially with Prime Minister Harper whose own cabinet is afraid of him. But Harper is not all that much different than any political leader who has won more than one election regardless of party. You see the same thing in B.C. provincial politics with Premier Gordon Campbell increasingly isolated from the mainstream of even his own party which goes a long way towards explaining the unprecedented pummelling the government has taken on the HST issue.

Be that as it may, what’s being talked about now is a new political party; not how to live with a minority government. It’s easy to criticize Harper – I do it all the time – but the fact remains he’s been a strong minority leader and may be around for a long time yet, though unlikely in a majority position. And this is what’s driving the Liberals and the NDP bonkers. They know that Harper is unlikely to ever command a majority, but at the same time they know that neither one of them in the current political matrix are likely to get a majority either. Not even the Liberals.

So what to do? Separately the Liberals and the NDP are going nowhere. But together?? It’s worth a try. I think it was Teddy Roosevelt who said, “politics is the art of the possible.”

That’s why despite the protestations of Ignatieff, Layton and Rae, I strongly suspect some serious talk is taking place in certain back rooms and Ottawa watering holes. If not by the aforementioned than by some of their supporters who are not afraid to say the emperor is not wearing any clothes.

If you want to wear the clothes of a majority prime minister in this country you’ve got to be prepared to do politics differently.