Experts are divided on the future of Stephen Harper should a proposed Liberal-NDP coalition government take power, even temporarily.

Given that the only mechanism for removing Harper from the leadership would be a convention vote, said political scientist Faron Ellis, Harper may be able to stay on as opposition leader long enough to wait for the coalition to fall apart.

Although confidence among Harper's caucus is likely shaken, Conservative MPs will rally around their embattled leader to ensure party solidarity, according to Ellis.

"If he faced a caucus revolt or something like that, then he has to make a determination about whether or not number one, he wants to stay and fight it out or number two, if he can," Ellis, a political scientist at Lethbridge College and an analyst for the Conservative Party, told CTV.ca. "And I would think that if he determines that he wants to, he certainly can."

On Monday NDP Leader Jack Layton, outgoing Liberal Leader Stephane Dion and Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe signalled their intention to defeat the Conservatives in a confidence vote next week and form a coalition government.

The move is largely a reaction to last week's economic update, delivered by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, which left out a plan for stimulating the slumping economy and included cuts of public funding to the political parties.

Experts agree that Harper likely misjudged the political climate, and assumed that the opposition would not send Canadians to the polls again by voting against the plan.

Now he is left with few options.

Harper may be able to cling to power if he asks Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean to prorogue Parliament until some time in January, a move that could come as early as today.

"If she agrees, which is not necessarily a given, he brings Parliament back early in January and at that time brings in a budget, which offers stimulus, is particularly appealing to Quebec, and says to the Parliament: Support this or fight an election," Toronto Star columnist Jim Travers said Tuesday on CTV Newsnet.

"In which case he is back in control of the situation. Wounded, yes, damaged, yes, but back in control of the situation."

Others believe that should the Liberals and NDP take power, Harper would likely choose to leave politics rather than lead the opposition or serve as a mere MP under a new leader.

Freelance political consultant Gerry Nicholls, who worked with Harper at the National Citizen's Coalition, said Harper would likely not let himself get pushed out of the leader's chair.

"I think he would quit politics altogether," Nicholls told CTV.ca. "I could not see him being second banana in any scenario."

Calling Harper "the Genghis Khan of Canadian politics - he likes to wage war, total war," Nicholls said the party funding measure was an attempt to bankrupt the Liberal Party.

Harper has long felt that the ideal political climate would be to have a Conservative party up against a socialist party, Nicholls said, and the economic update may have been his attempt to realize that goal.

"The blind spot was the coalition. I don't think a lot of people thought about this," Nicholls said.

No matter what happens, Harper will have to take the blame for the current political crisis.

"Stephen's chief adviser is Stephen. That's always the way it's been. He considers himself the top strategist," Nicholls said. "And so I think that if there's any blame that this didn't work, then I think that blame has to be assigned to the prime minister."

Which leads Nelson Wiseman, an associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto, to conclude that Harper's political career may well be over.

Wiseman believes that Harper's political capital has depreciated so much, that "he's probably toast."

"By calling the election, he was too clever by half," Nelson told CTV.ca. "And now in introducing what he did in the fiscal update, the stranglehold on party financing, he demonstrated that he's two clever by three-quarters."

Harper's biographer, William Johnson, author of "Stephen Harper and the Future of Canada," disagrees.

"I think he'll stay on because he'll realize it's a very jerry-rigged government," Johnson told CTV.ca. "It will bring about a crisis and he'll want to be there to deal with it, even if he's leader of the opposition."