Things are looking good for Prime Minister Stephen Harper these days; he’s riding high in the polls, the economy is looking better and he is a serious contender for a Grammy nomination, in the “Best vocals by a world leader” category.
Yup, this would be a good time for Prime Minister Harper to call an election. Except there’s one slight problem: for the past few months he’s been telling everyone who would listen that this would be a bad time for an election.
So what he needs is a little strategy. He has to somehow force the Opposition parties into voting against his government so that it will fall.
But this is easier said than done because, after all, the other parties aren’t crazy, the last thing they want to do right now is go to the polls.
This means the Conservatives must employ the old “poison pill” tactic, put some measure before the House which the other parties would find so offensive or repugnant they would have no choice but to vote against it.
Right now, no doubt, the Tories are crafting just such a pill.
To help them out, I am offering a few suggestions:
* To get Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff going introduce the following resolution in the House of Commons: “Be it resolved that Yale’s debating team could trounce Harvard’s debating team any day of the week.”
* Propose legislation which would require CUPE union boss Sid Ryan to actually make sense. There’s no way the NDP could support such a bill.
* And to get the Bloc Quebecois to vote against the government appoint as the Official Languages Commissioner, Don Cherry.
Now if none of this works, the government still has one option, which is certain to trigger an election call: end the welfare for politicians scheme, under which taxpayers subsidize political parties.
Recall the last time the government tried this it led to a near political mutiny.
Indeed, the Opposition leaders would probably rather swallow a real poison pill than get kicked off the dole.
Of course, I might be wrong about the government wanting an election. The Prime Minister might want to hold off, at least until after the Grammy awards.
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4 comments:
I would think the best thing the Harper Government could do is put forward more "Conservative" legislation that perhaps we haven't seen much of... legislation that is good for Canada (the economy, etc) but just a little too Conservative for Jack and Giles to vote for without losing party supporters.
Now don't be planting dangerous ideas, Gerry.
I love Harper saying we cant have another election after he is responsible for the last three of them.
One thing for sure things are not bad at all for the Liberals. Take a much more in depth view of the polls. The numbers mean something different from what most people think.
Some funny ones there indeed. But of course, the poison pill will always work and as others here point out a carefully crafted conservative bill that would send the opposing side into a fit would work perfectly. I'm thinking something to do with taxes myself... because we know the left only expects taxes to always increase. (real conservative)
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