According to Stockwell Day, it'll be all the evil opposition's fault if we go to the polls early, because after all the magnanamous Stephen Harper "gave up" his power to call elections when he wants:
Last June Prime Minister Harper did what no other federal leader in Canada's history has done. He relinquished his power to jerk the public around like others have done by calling surprise elections.
He tabled a Bill in the House of Commons saying the next federal election would be on a fixed date, in October 2009.
Of course, this is a complete crock of horse manure. Stockwell is talking about Bill C-16, the so-called "fixed election dates" act.
However, once again, reviewing the act itself we find the following open loophole at the very top:
56.1 (1) Nothing in this section affects the powers of the Governor General, including the power to dissolve Parliament at the Governor General’s discretion.
Right, so, the "honest" answer is that the Prime Minister - or others - can petition the Governor General at any time to dissolve parliament. In other words, there is no real change. If the government falls on a confidence motion, it still falls; if the Prime Minister decides on a whim that he wants a "snap election", he can still do it.
Of course, the CPC doesn't want you to believe this, but it's the case.
In order to actually "relinquish" that power, changes would be required to Canada's Constitution:
Duration of House of Commons 50. Every House of Commons shall continue for Five Years from the Day of the Return of the Writs for choosing the House (subject to be sooner dissolved by the Governor General), and no longer. (26)
There is absolutely NOTHING in bill C-16 that constrains the Prime Minister from petitioning the Governor General at any time to call an election. In other words, it is a fundamentally meaningless piece of legislative drivel.
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And some news from London with regard to CPoC candidate Dianne Hasket who was flown in from Washington for the recent byelection here.
One month after losing for the first time in an election, Dianne Haskett has decided to return to Washington, D.C.
The former London mayor has bid farewell to her hometown in a letter published on the Internet, writing that Londoners weren't willing to support her candidacy after living six years in the U.S. "Many Londoners have (told) me that they did not accept our family's personal decision to . . . (live and work) outside of Canada."
Haskett returned to London in October after learning, even before local Tories, that Stephen Harper was to call a byelection in London-North-Centre.
In 1997, Haskett became a star to evangelical Christians in Canada and the United States after skipping town and a re-election race -- which she easily won -- to protest a decision of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, which fined her for refusing to issue a Gay Pride proclamation.
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2007/01/04/3155454-sun.html
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