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| Great White North |
| Canadian PM will call election: Opposition leader |
| 2008-09-02 |
| TORONTO - Prime Minister Stephen Harper told Canada's main opposition leader Stephane Dion on Monday there will be an election soon, Dion said. Dion met with Harper on Monday and said after the meeting that the Canadian prime minister wants to go to the polls now, instead of waiting until the next scheduled election. Dion's spokesman Mark Dunn said Harper told Dion there would be an election 'in the not so distant future.' Harper spokesman Kory Teneycke said there is no common ground with the opposition parties and that Harper will deliberate over the next few days on whether to call an early election. Harper's Conservative government could also be brought down after parliament reconvenes on Sept. 15 if the three opposition parties who together hold the majority of seats vote against the government in a 'no confidence' motion. Teneycke also said Dion refused to promise he wouldn't bring the government down with a 'no confidence vote' over the next year. 'He provided no such assurance,' Teneycke said. The meeting with Dion was the last of talks Harper has held with Parliament's three main opposition leaders, meetings he's claimed were intended to seek support for his minority government's fall legislative agenda. But given the acrimonious partisan climate in Ottawa, the meetings appear certain to present Harper with the pretext for an immediate election call. They would provide the prime minister with an excuse to ignore his own government's fixed-election-date law that wouldn't see Canadians go to the polls until October 2009. Harper is likely to dissolve parliament sometime between Sept. 2-7 and set an early election for Oct. 14, a senior official in the prime minister's office said Friday. Some analysts say Harper's Conservatives have a better shot of winning an election soon rather than waiting until a time when the Canadian economy might be worse off. Harper also might want to go before voters ahead of the US presidential election in November, which could bring a Democrat to the White House and, some have theorized, encourage Canadians to choose a more liberal government. The Conservatives unseated the opposition Liberals in 2006 after nearly 13 years in power, but the minority government has been forced to rely on opposition lawmakers to pass legislation. The Conservatives now have 127 of the 308 seats in parliament. The Liberals have 95, Bloc Quebecois 48, the New Democrats 30 and Greens have one. Three seats are held by Independents, and four remain vacant. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #1 I fear that my country is slowly becoming ungovernable and is splitting into an east/west dichotomy kind of place. The east wants to get their hands on the west's oil and natural gas money . . . . and the west, naturally enough, wants to keep it for themselves. Polling has consistently shown the Liberals (shudder!!!) to be retaining their popularity in Ontario and the Maritime Provinces while the Conservatives hold the west and show some strength in Quebec. Only a Federal election will sort this out so I hope we get it over with soon and then the guv can get on with guvving or whatever it is they do. In any case, I fear that we have become a nation of "whingers". |
| Posted by: Canuckistan sniper 2008-09-02 11:52 |