Make no mistake, Harper wants an election

He played footsie with the idea with the throne speech, but now the Conservatives want to make their super-duper omnibus crime bill both a confidence vote and an all-or-nothing affair. Apparently Steve doesn't want any amendments or anything, take it or leave it. One wonders what (if anything) Steve will try to slip in there to make it unpalatable so that he can go to the polls hollering about a soft-on-crime opposition.

I'm not sure why this is a big priority for the Conservatives given that crime is on the decline. One of their spokespeople/strategists or what-have-you remarked that this would show that the Conservatives understood urban voters. This is of course based on an idiotic stereotype of urban life and the threat of crime in big cities. Toronto is not early-1980s New York, it's actually a fairly safe place compared to many other parts of Canada.

In related news, at least some Tory-sympathizers are upset that Dion didn't bring down the government. According to this post, this somehow renders Stephane Dion undemocratic. It ought to be plain now which side wants an election.

All sound and fury signifying nothing

The net result of this throne speech was not much more than this. It said everything that it was expected to say, and one of opposition parties will once again sustain the government. The longer we allow the Conservatives stay in power, the more accepting the country becomes of this bunch, though they are restrained by their minority status. This restraint keeps them cautious on whole range of ideological issues but it gets Canadians comfortable with idea of Harper in charge of the country.

Two More Years!

That's what the throne speech just proposed for Afghanistan. No reasons were given why we need to keep going until 2011 or what we will accomplish in that time, but we apparently we need just that much more time. Or Harper's just playing for time.

Throne Speech

The introduction to this thing is rather long and drawn out. I was not aware we had to have all these people walk back and forth and repeat these archaic procedures. I do not think though that the Throne Speech has ever been held this late in the day.

Why is the Throne Speech late in the day? My feeling is that this may be an attempt - conscious or otherwise to ape the American State of the Union address (no offense, Americans, but we have our own traditions). The job Harper really wants is President of Canada.

I'm gonna make them a throne speech they can't refuse

Isn't this just precious, Stephen Harper is putting on some kind of Godfather face in this picture. I suppose the ever-sympathetic National Post published this photo because it fits with the sort of stance that Harper is trying to project.

Once again I get the impression that Harper really wants an election sooner rather than later. I suspect he feels as though this is the time to hit the opposition parties. The fact that the Liberal party machine has turned into a bit of a gong show as of late probably gives Harper the impression that he has an opportunity to exploit right now.

He also has to be worried that his party has not been to pull away from the Liberals despite the Grits' very public woes. Nonetheless, I suspect his party figures now is the time to go. The only question is what will Harper do in the throne speech to render it unsupportable for all of the opposition parties. Of course the Post presents this as a "no-lose" strategy for Harper but that presumes that he would kill in any fall election. Given that he cannot put any daylight between himself and the Liberals I don't know that he can improve his standing in the parliament.

Harper Getting Ready

The Star says that the Conservatives are prepping their buses for a campaign right after the throne speech. It ought to be apparent now that Harper has chosen this fall as his time to go. The throne speech he's crafting is probably going to walk a fine line between being unsupportable by the opposition but still acceptable to Canada's political mainstream. He'll hem and haw about how the opposition forced him into a campaign, and yet it ought to be apparent by now that he wants one. It's probably the Chretien strategy of hitting the new guy before he gets established, and Harper's going to try to use it to grab a majority.