It’s official: We’ll have to vote on Oct 14

September 7, 2008

Filed under: , , Canadian politics, Chinatown, election — admin @ 2:13 pm

CP - Prime Minister Stephen Harper, weary of waiting for the opposition to bring down his minority government, dashed his promise of a fixed election date and pulled the plug himself Sunday to end 31 months of Conservative rule.

The move sends Canadians to the polls for the third time in four years.

Against the backdrop of a weakening economy, Harper asked Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean to dissolve Canada’s 39th Parliament so that a national vote can be held Oct. 14 — the day after Thanksgiving.

Harper said this election will be a choice between certainty and risk at a time when the world economy has entered a period of instability.

“Between now and Oct. 14, Canadians will choose a government to look out for their interests at a time of global economic trouble,” he said after meeting with Jean.

“They will choose between direction or uncertainty; between common sense or risky experiments; between steadiness or recklessness.”

In calling the election, Harper ignored his own fixed-election-date law — legislation he’d explicitly pitched as a
means of stopping prime ministers from calling snap votes whenever the political tide felt favourable.

In what will likely be a regular riposte, the Liberals issued a press release Sunday under the headline “Conservative Broken Platform Promise of the Day,” which quoted the Tory blue book of 2006.

Elections are to be held every four years, said the 2006 Conservative campaign promise, “except when a government loses the confidence of the House.”

Harper justified breaking his own law by saying Parliament, which was to resume Sept. 15, had become “dysfunctional” and requires a fresh government mandate as the country sails into global economic turbulence.

Harper’s managerial acumen in a slowing economy will be pitted against Liberal Leader Stephane Dion’s proposed overhaul of Canada’s tax system, designed to shift taxation off income and on to greenhouse gas-emissions.

Harper said now is not the time to gamble on Dion’s carbon tax plan.

“The opposition insists on large-sale spending and a new tax. But even they admit that their carbon tax proposal is a work in progress,” he said.

“This tax will pack a cost on to every expenditure every family and every business makes.”

It’s a message Harper is expected to pound home every day throughout the 37-day campaign.

Dion counters that his plan is revenue neutral — offset by income-tax cuts — and notes that carbon taxes have been endorsed by everyone from environmentalists to leading business groups.

“Between David Suzuki and the Conference Board (of Canada), we have a very large number of Canadians that Mr. Harper is calling crazy and insane,” Dion said at a Liberal caucus meeting in Winnipeg this week.