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Written by -- Editor Dave Paulson
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Wednesday, 27 August 2008 |
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LIBERALSMICHAELLE JEAN
Whatever Stephen Harper's real motive for triggering a fall vote, he's deemed it important enough to break one of the first promises he made as prime minister -- fixed election dates.
Canadians will be going to the polls as early as October if, as expected, he asks Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean to dissolve Parliament next week.
An October election would come exactly one year earlier than he'd pledged in 2006, when Bill C-16 was established and set Oct. 19, 2009 as the date for the next federal election.
Harper cites a "dysfunctional" Parliament as his reason for going to the polls. Parliament is "increasingly reaching an impasse on a range of issues," he said this week.
Harper harbours no illusions to sweeping to a majority this time. "My expectation is that we will have another minority," he said Wednesday.
His Conservatives haven't been able to generate momentum or establish any meaningful margin over the Liberals in opinion polls, so a snap election call goes against conventional wisdom for a governing party.
Canadians certainly haven't been pining for an election. In fact, NDP leader Jack Layton and Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe, who have nothing to lose if an election is held this year or next year, were about the only people in the country itching for an election until Harper started making noises this summer.
So why the rush to the polls?
It's difficult to accept the PM's position that a new mandate, assuming it's Harper leading another minority, would somehow make the stated parliamentary dysfunction disappear.
Canadians, by and large, seem to have come to accept a minority situation and would be content to wait another year.
But there's something in the Tories' crystal ball that tells them it might be a mistake to wait.
The Liberals continue to nip at the heels of the Tories in the polls despite having a leader, Stephane Dion, whose intelligence simply can't mask his dullness.
For Harper, the danger in waiting lies partly in the possibility that Canadians, once they get to know Dion better, might like him.
Other factors certainly considered by Harper is the sliding national economy and Tory ethics issues and skeletons ranging from the Chuck Cadman affair to Julie Couillard.
Harper and the Tories know the present but they can't predict the future, and that makes an early election call in their best interests -- even if it means breaking a promise.
Fixed election dates, Harper said not so long ago, "prevent governments from calling snap elections for short-term political advantage."
He was correct then, but as we've come to expect in politics, expediency trumps principles almost every time.
That aside, a look at the landscape shows it could be a master stroke by Harper.
-- Editor Dave Paulson
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 27 August 2008 )
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It will be up to individual voters to keep informed through the news media, and that is where everyone will get their money's worth out of their Internet. I urge everyone to keep abreast of national news coverage through cbc.ca., ctv.ca., and maclean's.ca., between now and when the writ is dropped. This is the best way that everyone can use their vote wisely, and be sure to VOTE!!!