PMSH: There's An Election Pending

Harper's already playing the "pity me" card over the likelihood that his government will fall in the coming months.

““The party will be ready for an election, let me assure you, when an election comes, and if it comes, it will be because the opposition forced it.”

He also said he doesn't want a vote until October, 2009, the date which is being proposed under new legislation, and that his party has had success in pushing through its agenda.

Still, he made a case for a majority, saying current parliamentary instability is a distraction from bigger issues.

[But] I think it's hard to focus in a [minority] on what we want to achieve two or three years down the road. We can never lose sight of the fact the opposition could defeat us next month, and we can't at any point ever take the focus off short-term action.”

"Whether, over time, that will detract from longer-time action, I hope not,” he said.

Oh, I see, Stephen - voters should hand you a majority next election based on the fact that you "deserve" power. My goodness, and you talk about the Liberals having "entitlement issues"! So far your government's "short term" has been pretty godawful to watch. You've started dismantling numerous government programs and agencies - all of which on the basis of political ideology. Your "spending cuts" are nothing more than unlegislated imposition of the agenda you kept hidden last election. Just yesterday, your government fired the head of the Wheat Board, without even consulting with him.

“We're starting to focus on longer-term objectives; some of the democratic reform, Senate reform measures, our environmental initiatives — particularly the Clean Air Act — Advantage Canada and the economic plan,” he said.

“These are longer-term things that are only in their infancy. It's hard in a [minority] to focus the way I would like to.”

So far, much of the government's agenda has focused on relatively short-term pledges that flow from Mr. Harper's successful election campaign of one year ago.

Longer term objectives? Like your "clean air act"?, which defers doing anything meaningful until this generation is deceased. Lovely. I don't think I want this bunch of weasels in power until 2050!

He has, for example, successfully pushed through pledges like a one-percentage-point cut to the GST, begun sending out family allowance cheques for families with pre-school children and passed the Accountability Act. Other changes to criminal justice are moving slowly while a promise to shorten wait times for medical services appears bogged down with the provinces.

There might be a reason that his vaunted "reforms" to criminal justice are getting hung up - namely that they all break various aspects of our constitutional and criminal systems - in ways that are detrimental to things like the supposition of innocence.

Harper's high-handed approach to government will only get worse if he gets a majority. In my view, his legislative agenda and policy implementation shows a disregard for Canadians that I find reprehensible.

We need this guy out of 24 Sussex before he does any more damage to our nation.