a) It's actually going to be closer to five and a half years,
b) If Harper had stuck to his own election law, we'd be having an election right now anyway, and
c) The last two out of three elections were brought about (rather unnecessarily) by Stephen Harper.
This has been today's talking points memo. You're welcome.
Harper and his gang state that Canadians should not be having an election because we need to deal with the economy. Then again, Canadians went to the polls in 1917, 1940, and 1945 when our soldiers went to war during WWI and WWII. Canadians went through many sacrifices during those wars. There was food and material rationing and many families lost sons and fathers who fought in the wars. Yet, they were still able to vote. Seeing that Canadian soldiers are currently at war in Afghanistan, now would be a perfect time to have an election.
ReplyDeleteYour right on points a and c Jennifer but b I would challenge. This is a minority government and IF we did have fixed election dates like Harper proposed AND the Liberals were smoking in the polls, then Liberals would be screaming murder. They would want to Win now instead of waiting for the next fixed election date which could have been a couple years away. And Liberals would be complaining that Conservatives are setting up US style elections.
ReplyDeleteThe fixed election date law has nothing to do with the actions of the Opposition - it is to prevent the GOVERNMENT from calling early elections. Of course a motion of non-confidence will trigger an election - that's a given under our system. But short of that, the Government (according to Harper) shouldn't be bringing itself down to take advantage of the polls, which is what Harper was always complaining the Liberals did - and which is precisely what Harper did last time.
ReplyDeleteThe time before that, it was the Conservatives in opposition who moved non-confidence and triggered an election only a year ad a half after the last one. So I'm sorry, but they can't say both those elections were "necessary" and this one isn't.