The pointless Canadian election

As expected, Stephen Harper today strong-armed Governor General Michaëlle Jean into dissolving Parliament, setting the stage for an election. It seems that the Conservatives grow tired of the current "dysfunctional" Parliament and want to call an election before the Liberals can force one. Never mind the fact that Dion and the Liberals have had many opportunities to do so and have declined because the timing wasn't right.

I'll leave the legality of the election up to the lawyers out there, but at the very least, this election call seems to violate the spirit of the Canada Elections Act. You know, the one that Harper promised to amend so that we have fixed election dates so that the governing party can't just call elections whenever they are ahead in the opinion polls? Yeah, the one that everyone has already been talking about.

Anyway, I can look past that if calling an election would be better for government. If Parliament were truly "dysfunctional" (which seems to be decided by meeting with members of opposing parties and asking them if they will kowtow to you for another session), and calling an election would improve the situation, then I could understand it. And then I read this: "We believe it is going to be a tough election. We believe it will be a tight election. And, yes, we believe in all likelihood it will be a minority." Who said that? Why, it was Stephen Harper¹. So if the current Conservative minority Parliament is dysfunctional, then he must certainly expect a new Conservative minority Parliament to be dysfunctional. On the other hand, if they do win a minority Parliament, then there would be no need to call another election for another four years instead of next year. And that definitely smells of calling an opportunistic election. If the economy is going to go south in the next year, nobody is going to want to call an election, and if the Conservatives win even a minority Parliament, they won't have to.

This whole election is just a waste of time and money. It's not going to change the makeup of Parliament, but it will push back the election requirements, and it will allow them to call an election before the political backlash of a poor economy. I think the only wild card here for the Conservatives is the potential ill will for taking advantage of the Canadian voters. Come on, we're smarter than that. Aren't we?