Canadian Prime Minster Drops Election Hints

Canada's Prime Minster is saying that parliament is no longer functioning and he may have to do something to cause an election.

The next Canadian federal election is slated for 2009 but it is possible that Prime Minister Harper will attempt to force an early election. The PM was speaking in Newfoundland and Labrador when he said Parliament is becoming increasingly dysfunctional, not surprisingly he laid most of the blame on Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion and his party. "Quite frankly, I’m going to have to make a judgment in the next little while as to whether or not this Parliament can function productively," Harper said, without elaborating on his plans. Apparently, legislation is being stalled in the Liberal-dominated Senate and obstructed in the House of Commons "principally by Mr. Dion." The committee system is "increasingly in chaos," which may be a reference to the bickering taking place at an ethics committee probe into Tory election ad spending. Senior Conservative witnesses have refused to appear while Tory members have accused the committee of being partisan and this has caused Opposition MPs to complain. "Two of the three opposition parties don't support the government and say we should be defeated. Mr. Dion says he doesn’t support the government but won't say, you know, whether he will defeat us or not," Harper said. "I don’t think that’s a tenable situation." Harper has already called Dion pout on the election when last month, in a speech to Conservative party members in Quebec, he said Dion should "fish or cut bait" on a fall election. His comments yesterday appear to be taking this one step further. "This is an important message that he sent today because he is really for the first time himself opening the door to the idea that he would be the one to go and dissolve Parliament and provoke an election," CBC's Rosemary Barton said. The next federal election is scheduled for October 2009.

by franz88

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper

image:42567:0::0

This October may be a good time to go to the polls, the Liberals are not an effective force , the NDP are a long way from being a serious threat and the Green party while doing well do not have the backing to be a challenger. In October, summer is over, kids are back in school, the snow has not, hopefully, yet fallen and Christmas is still a bit in the future.