Saving parliamentary democracy

Who would have thought it possible that right in Canada democracy could be assaulted so suddenly and so brazenly? We;re used to seeing this sort of thing in the developing world. Yet here we are: Stephen Harper lieing to the public, creating hysteria with rhetoric, and threatening to pervert democratic process, all for what? in order to hang on to his already tenuous minority government, elected by a mere 37.6% of Canadians.