Canadians are set to go to the polling stations next month, as Prime Minister Stephen Harper appears determined to trigger an election later this week.
During the past few days, the prime minister has talked with leaders of all three opposition parties. Declaring the parliament in a deadlock, he said he wanted to see if there is any common ground between his minority government and the oppositions to keep the legislature running.
The Parliament, scheduled to resume on Sept. 15, has been on summer recess for almost three months. Harper has recently depicted it as "dysfunctional," saying the oppositions have tried to block his government's agenda.
Harper met with New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton and Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe last week before his latest meeting with Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion on Monday.
All three leaders emerged from their meetings saying Harper has made up his mind about calling an election within this week's time. They accused the prime minister of manipulating the election time to best serve his party's interest.
They also criticized Harper for breaking the law about a fixed election date that his own government introduced. According to a legislation passed in 2007, the next election will only take place on Oct. 19, 2009.
But the prime minister was determined to ignore the law, when he said last Tuesday at a news conference in Ottawa that the legislation only applied to a majority government and not his minority government. It was then that he indicated he wanted an election in the near future.
After that, Harper sought the meetings with the opposition leaders and made a three-day tour to the North during which he announced several measures to strengthen Canada's sovereignty in the North Pole. These announcements, including geo-mapping searches for resources and extension of Canada's jurisdiction into the Arctic, are seen as important campaign issues.
Harper also asked Governor General Michaelle Jean to cancel her trip to China slated to begin on Sept. 4, so she will be available to dissolve the parliament.
According to senior government sources, after having met with all three opposition leaders, the prime minister will declare that he believes his minority government no longer has the confidence of Parliament. He will then have the excuse to go to the Governor General to dissolve Parliament and hit the campaign trail.
"It will happen between (September) 5th and the 7th," a senior government source told The Canadian Press. "There will be an election kickoff between Friday and Sunday."
The election will be held on Oct. 14, said the source.
An immediate election call offers Harper a number of political advantages, observers have noted.
Firstly, with the economy wavering, Canada is expecting a federal deficit for the current fiscal year, the first such after the former Liberal government managed to achieve surpluses for years in a row. Harper hopes to finish the election before the fiscal report comes out, thus exempting his campaign from being affected by the negative news.
Secondly, as the Liberal Party has been threatening to topple the government this fall, the Conservatives decided to take matters into their own hands and take control of the election timing, rather than wait for Liberal leader Stephane Dion to gain more support as time goes on.
Thirdly, by calling for an early election, Harper also wants to avoid a series of by-elections set for next week. Polls suggest the Conservatives will fair badly in these elections.
The Conservatives came to power after defeating the Liberals in the January 2006 election. The minority government occupies only 127 seats in the 308-seat parliament and needs the support of at least one opposition party to pass legislation or stay in power.
(Xinhua News Agency September 3, 2008)
