Especially if voting is compulsory, as is the case here. When deciding whether to call an early poll, Australian politicians have to assess whether the voters will punish them for being forced to spend time on a Saturday voting for what they perceive is an ‘unnecessary’ election.
The discussion of the Governor General’s reserve powers re dissolution also points out that the inaccuracy in the CNN article is misleading. it is not the PM who dissolves Parliament, but the GovGen. True, in almost all cases, the GovGen will follow the advice of the PM, but as a matter of law, it is the GovGen who dissolves Parliament. Saying that the PM has dissolved Parliament hides this fact, and the rare possibility that the GovGen will refuse dissolution.
Also, the new headline of the CNN article (“Canadian PM employs loophole in potential power grab”) does make it sound sort of illegitimate and more like a coup, so I can see why people who are not familiar with the parliamentary system would think it’s a crisis of some sort. The “potential power grab” is simply a general election. CNN wouldn’t say that McCain is trying a potential power grab by virtue of being nominated for the GOP.