HST UPDATE: Cancel that Liberal leadership crisis (for now)!

Hey, remember that ultimatum? You know, that diabolically clever gambit by the government that would force the Liberals to support a bill formalizing the sales tax harmonization agreements in Ontario and British Columbia or risk earning the ire of the Liberal provincial governments in question?  

Turns out that the Bloc Quebecois are ready and willing to do just that -- support the bill, that is -- on the grounds that it would make it easier for Quebec to enter into a similar agreement in future. That seems to get Ignatieff and his caucus off the hook by leaving them free to vote against the legislation -- although if that's what they decide to do, they'll still have to put up with frowny faces from their provincial Liberal colleagues in Ontario.

Then again, the memo quoted by the Globe was pretty unequivocal in stating that the Official Opposition "must" support the bill in order to deliver a parliamentary decision that is "certain and final," although admittedly, it didn't sound like the unnamed writer thereof had taken into account the possibility that one of the other two opposition parties would back the government. In any case, the Liberals have yet to say what their final position will be, but the Bloc's move does seem to provide a bit of breathing room.