Our two Stephens have been saber-rattling at each other all summer about pulling the plug on the current minority Parliament, and PM Stephen has been hinting at an election.
Just in case she’s needed to dissolve Parliament, maybe around September 5.
In other words, from a standing start just after the Republican convention, to results of the election by the mid-October, and maybe even a new government sworn in before the US voting day.
That’s the way to run an election: keep it short & sweet.
I dunno … I know the media is rattling sabres but I know a number of people, whose opinion I trust a lot, who are convinced it’s bluster. I agree with their reasoning although I can’t fully reproduce it here. What it comes down to is that Harper has nothing really to lose by waiting. Or, the Liberals have nothing to gain by an extra year.
Harper wouldn’t call an election without having good reasons to think he’ll win. He’s way too smart for that.
I like Dion but I don’t think he has any chance of beating Harper, now or ever. So I kind of just want this election to be over so the Liberals can start again. I expect that this election (whether this fall or next) will result in another Harper minority so I wouldn’t be surprised by another five years of this kind of circus.
What I especially like is that it’s probably going to be called less than a week before polling day of three by-elections, and more specifically, the by-election in Saint-Lambert I’ve been working on for the last month. Then, of course, I get to work for another month on the general in Jeanne-Le Ber, without a break.
If it makes you feel any better, I suspect there’s a good chance cowgirl is right. The Conservatives are floating this, not necessarily committing, and they’re ready to back away if there’s even a hint it won’t work.
Personally, I think they’d be insane to call an election right now, and are much better positioned next year. But they aren’t asking my opinion.
The Governor General (presently Michaëlle Jean) does not loose her powers when with permission of the Queen she is out of the country for up to a month.
If she can not fulfill her role, then the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada steps in (presently Beverley McLauchlin), and if that person cannot do so, then the most senior judge of the Supreme Court of Canada (presently William Binnie). Letters Patent Constituting the Office of Governor General of Canada, 1947
Nice. Criticize Cretien for calling snap elections when he thought the Libs had an advantage. Pass law setting fixed dates for elections. Then ignore the fixed date and call a snap election when you think it’s to your advantage.
Oh really? There’s absolutely nothing about minority governments in the bill that was passed, and it specifies a date of Oct 19, 2009 for the next election. That seems pretty obviously applicable to the current government.
Now, it is of course true that the PM is perfectly entitled to inform the GG that he has lost the confidence of parliament, whereupon she is obliged to either dissolve parliament or ask another party leader to form a government (though of course at the moment there is no other possibility in that regard - Dionne would lose a confidence motion before he made it to his seat). And so? So, sure, legally the PM can call an election at any time. This would be true even if the PM had a majority, as a majority government cannot possibly fail to lose a confidence vote since they can simply vote against their own government. The law is constitutionally toothless, and was just a bit of political grandstanding.
That’s what annoys me so much. If you’re going to throw such a hissy fit about the Liberals calling a couple elections when you weren’t really ready for them several years ago that you pass a legally meaningless bill that pretends to require fixed election dates, then you shouldn’t ought to turn around and ignore it at the very first opportunity.
He should engineer a confidence vote that the Tories would lose. That’s the traditionally accepted way to call an election when you’re a minority government.
I prefer floating rather than fixed terms, for it keeps the politicians on their toes and hopefully more attentive to the preferences of their constitutents.
They would do well to look to Britain. Last year we had election fever and then Brown bottled it and lost a great deal of credibility - going ‘from Stalin to Mr Bean’.
Remem ber their slogan: “Vote Rhino…and vote often!”
I agree with those who think the Conservatives are simply floating this idea right now. If things look good for them, we might see an election, but if they have to wait, then they’ll wait.
The only possible reason I can think of for Harper to break yet another campaign promise and force an early election is that the Conservatives are terrified about what’s going to come out of the investigation in the In-and-Out scheme.
As we’re in MPSIMS, I’ll restrain myself and call this balderdash. If the opposition parties got together and forced an election, there’s nothing Harper could do about it and he wouldn’t be to blame. But to bring down his own government? That’s a clear violation of his promise. But what else can we expect from the government that’s done more in 2 years to compound Canada’s “Democratic Deficit” than the Liberals managed in 12 years?
