May 03, 2005

All systems go: Harper

Tories to force election at the "earliest opportunity"

Despite a weekend of polls showing his Conservative Party's "Gomery bounce" has evaporated, Stephen Harper reaffirmed the commitment he made last week to bring down Paul Martin's government in a non-confidence vote at the "earliest opportunity."

After a two-and-a-half hour meeting with his Caucus, the Tory leader called on Mr. Martin to stop delaying the non-confidence vote and face the music for his party's alleged misdeeds.

"Mr. Martin is playing a ridiculous game here," he said. "Let's have the vote now and get it over with."

All of the election talk was spurred by the testimony of Quebec advertising executive Jean Brault at the Gomery Inquiry where he leveled allegations of corruption against the governing Liberals. Polls taken immediately after Mr. Brault's testimony was made public showed a massive shift of support away from the Liberals and eventually to the Conservative, but last week polls showed the Liberals had slowed and then stopped their slide.

The desperate nationally televised address in which Prime Minister Martin told Canadians he would call an election within 30 days of Justice Gomery's final report is being credited by some for the change in Liberal fortunes.

The rapidly shifting public opinion landscape had a number of Tory MPs nervous going into last night's special Caucus meeting. Many, particularly in Ontario fear a backlash if the Conservatives force an election ahead of Mr. Martin's timeline. However, circumstances dictated there could only be one possible outcome from last night's meeting: a decision to press forward with a non-confidence vote.

Three key issues made the Conservatives' decision inevitable:

  • Mr. Harper, who has been trying to straddle the gulf between the hawks and the doves in his party was beginning to look indecisive on the question of forcing an election, until his pronouncement last week that his party would put the Liberal government "out of its misery" as soon as possible. To back down now would invite unflattering comparisons to Prime Minister Paul "Mr. Dithers" Martin.

  • Mr. Harper has been clear in saying he believes the Liberals have lost the moral authority to govern. To continue to support them until Mr. Martin calls an election is completely inconsistent with that belief.

  • It likely won't get any better than this for the Tories. The Liberal scandal will never be fresher in the minds of Canadians than it is now and it offers the Conservatives a toe in the door with voters and opportunity put forward their platform while the Liberals are on the defensive.

The Liberals will try to delay the vote as long as possible but won't be able to hold it off forever. Expect an election in early July.

Posted by maxthecat at May 3, 2005 08:10 AM

http://www.maxsmewsings.com/mt/archives/2005/05/all_systems_go_harper.php