To avert that, Mr Dombrovskiscould offer HarmonyCentreadeal, perhaps in place ofthesmallestcoalition party, a new ultra-alliance which has eightseats and an unpleasant fringe.
Alternative currencies, meanwhile, are moving from the fringe to the centre, as more and more people worry about the long-term value of coin of the realm.
At the federal election in May Mr Layton led the NDP, a perennial left-of-centre fringe party, to a triumph that in its way was more remarkable than Mr Harper's winning of a parliamentary majority after five years as a minority prime minister.