Here's a clue:
Sept. 5 - Latest date Governor General Michaelle Jean heads to Beijing for Paralympics.
Sept. 11 - Governor General Michaelle Jean back in Ottawa (and ready to dissolve Parliament, if need be.)
Not only are those two dates on either side of the by-elections on the 9th, but if you count forward 36+ days from when Harper seems to want the writ dropped (the 5th), and given that an election will be on a weekday, you end up with October 13th or 14th as the earliest election day.
If he doesn't manage to catch Jean before she leaves for China, then we'd be looking at October 20th. What happens between those two dates?
Oct. 14 - Tentative release date for Julie Couillard's autobiography
There ya go. Not the whole answer, but certainly one of the more entertaining scenarios.
Good reasons all, but I nominate the looming recession as the biggest time constraint.
ReplyDeleteIn general, yes, but I doubt that one week is going to make a lot of difference to the economy one way or the other. And that's what Harper seems to be freaking over: one week.
ReplyDeleteEveryone is so surprised when Harper breaks a promise. But the Conservative Party's foundational action, the one act that made it's existence possible, was a shameless broken promise. And that was, don't forget, only five years ago.
ReplyDeleteThat worked so well for Defense Minister and ex-PC leader Peter MacKay and for Prime Minister Harper, without anyone apparently remembering or holding it against them, is it a surprise that they consider the broken-promise tactic a winner?