We are going to have a federal election in Canada in May.
I confess I wouldn't have guessed this. The malaise that is Canadian politics means no one likes the status quo, but everyone is nervous over what might happen in an election.
The budget is more of a trigger than anything else: minority governments are frustrating on multiple levels and sometimes you just can't take it anymore.
The Liberals want to focus on the numerous scandals from the Harper government, and scare voters into not giving Prime Minister Stephen Harper a majority.
The Conservatives want to portray themselves as the party to lead through the rest of the economic recovery, and scare the voters of a possible coalition government among the Liberals, NDP, and Bloc Quebecois. The Harper team has put the emphasis of that potential coalition on the Bloc Quebecois, even though the Bloc wouldn't have much interest in working with any of the federal parties.
The New Democratic Party want to portray themselves as the true standard of what Canadians want, and like the Liberals, scare the voters of a majority Harper government.
This will be Michael Ignatieff's first federal election as Liberal party leader. Ignatieff has been slammed by Conservative Party ads that have run this winter and spring, some of them during hockey games. Elitist, American (spent most of his adult life in the United States), and lack of charisma are the negative traits associated with the Liberal leader.
Ignatieff is smart, and can't be any worse a candidate than Stephan Dion, the Liberal leader from the October 2008 election.
Harper has never been terribly dynamic, but has had the chance to be prime minister, even in a minority government, and so the bar is set, as low as it might be.
Gone are the days of the dynamic prime minister in the mold of Pierre Trudeau (Liberal) or Brian Mulroney (Conservative). Neither Harper nor Ignatieff can come close.
Harper has been the prime minister since his election in January 2006, and he has the largest number of MPs in his two governments so far. The last majority government was held by the Liberals in 2004.
This time around, there are three likely conclusions: status quo, Harper majority, Ignatieff minority. The election will either be May 2 or May 9. And we will have all the coverage right here at CanadianCrossing.com.
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