In a stunningly stupid and arrogant manoeuvre our newly re-elected Prime Minister has shown utter incompetence at his job.

If politics was a game of chess, Stephen Harper has just put his King in checkmate.

Of course, this game is more like "chicken," the one in which two drivers race to a head-on collision to see which one will veer to the side first to avoid the crash.

Mr. Harper quickly veered to the side last week by backtracking on the contentious issues he said would be put to a confidence vote in Parliament.

But it's too late because the Liberal-NDP-Bloc Québécois juggernaut is full-throttle ahead and headed straight for his front bumper.

Of course, there is no guarantee the fledgling coalition will survive the collision, either. Those of us who witness the sickening carnage of twisted metal and bloodied corpses are not likely to be impressed with whatever might rise from the ashes.

Mr. Harper might prove to be creative in finding a way out of his blunder and dodge the fall of his government, but it's not looking good for him.

Governor-General Michaëlle Jean does not have to accede to his best hope: a request that Parliament be prorogued until budget day in January. There is no precedent for that. Odds are good that she would instead order him to resign and either call on the coalition to form a government or call a general election.

Yet another election race so soon after the last one would not go down well with the public. And it would be a major PR battle by both sides to cast the blame for it on the other side, with no clear winners foreseen, and probably little change in the overall ballot result.

People, quite justifiably, look on those who play the game of chicken with little pity.

But then, as the (unfairly) under-rated, late Tory MP Enoch Powell once said, "All political lives end in failure."