Harper Chose October 2009 For Election

Another great Goodale Weekly Commentary...

MR. HARPER CHOSE OCTOBER OF 2009

Stephen Harper says he doesn’t want an election this October!

That’s odd? Wasn’t it Stephen Harper himself who picked October of this year for a federal election?

Yes, it was! Remember his “Fixed Election Date” law? He pushed it through Parliament about two years ago. He ordered Canadians to the polls in October of 2009. That timing was Mr. Harper’s idea.

But somewhere along the line, something happened. For his own convenience, he pulled the plug early. He violated the law – his law – by calling an unscheduled and unnecessary election a year early, in October of 2008.

No one forced him. He was never defeated on a “confidence vote” in the House of Commons. He just wanted to have an election. Why? Because he knew a nasty recession was coming, and he knew he had already put the country into a damaging deficit long before that recession ever began.

Mr. Harper’s premature 2008 campaign was his way of trying to “beat the rap” for squandering Canada’s hard-earned financial strength.

Another point to bear in mind is this -- instead of governing, the Harper Conservatives have been electioneering for many months now.

Mr. Harper is the one who has saturated the television networks with bitter “attack-ads”. He’s the one who has stuffed mail-boxes across the country with nasty pamphlets. And all of this is subsidized by taxpayers – millions of your dollars wasted on self-serving, misleading Conservative propaganda!

So Mr. Harper picked the original timing for a vote and started campaigning. It’s a bit hypocritical for him to complain about it now.

But hypocrisy has become his trade-mark. Beyond “Fixed Election Dates”, remember all those other broken promises about equalization, income trusts, no deficits, no appointed Senators – the list goes on.

If an election comes this fall, Stephen Harper must shoulder the responsibility!

VICTORY FUND