The Queen, perhaps?A little far fetched at this stage, but the liberals are already trying to capitalize on the incapacity or death of conservative MP's. Once a government starts thinking that such means are justified to stay in power, it is only a matter of how many steps they need to take.
It's fairly farfetched, I hope - because precisely the loyalty of the army could scarcely be taken for granted by a leftist government which has no more affinity for the military than our Democratic Party does. Which lack of affinity, frankly, was a signal reassurance to me when the 2000 election approached and the thought ocurred that x42 had by then flouted so many laws and traditions that one would have to wonder about his leaving office of his own volition.But I think that even if the army were reliable it is, with special thanks to the current governing party in no small measure, not big enough for the job. The Canadian government could not readily sustain itself in the face of lack of pollitical legitimacy in both London and Washington. Canada could in such case simply fracture, with provinces either choosing independence or (if seriously threatened) asking for Statehood or Puerto Rico-like Commonwealth status.
During the '95 referendum some of us worried about exactly that.