Harper Will Have to Blow Smoke at the Governor General and NOT Say Why He Really Wants an Election

So Prime Minister Harper is meeting the Governor General on Sunday to ask for an election. His official reason is that Parliament is dysfunctional and the opposition has lost confidence in his government. The facts are that Harper has led one of the longest lasting, if not the longest lasting, minority governments in Canadian history. He has stated publicly that he has accomplished all five of his policy priorities.

Parliament has clearly not been dysfunctional and since it is not sitting it is a puzzle how he can say it is dysfunctional now. That is unfortunately a logical concern and logic has nothing to do with political expediency.

Harper says the opposition has lost confidence in his government. Again how do we know that? Just saying it does not make it so Mr. Prime Minister. Parliament is not scheduled to sit until September 15 and it is impossible to know what the Prime Minister’s legislative intent is. Mr. Harper has met with the other party leaders and demanded compliance but did not say to what proposals or public policy ends. Harper has not said anything about those inconvenient details to the citizens of Canada either. How does he know that? How can he be certain he has lost the confidence of Parliament without actually testing it in the House of Commons?

Harper wants an election now purely for his own sly and slippery reasons. He wants the voters to pay over $400,000,000.00 just so he can push for personal power and then expect us to forget and forgive him for this waste of our time and useless squandering taxpayer money.

I hope the Governor General does not take Mr. Harper at his word about the loss of confidence in his government. I hope she demands he prove it by opening Parliament and then presenting a real non-confidence Bill. Please don’t insult Parliament and Canadians again with a phony piece of superficial legislation that he personally deems to be a confidence matter. We have seen say too much of that insipid game of political chicken Harper he has played for the past Parliaments.


Without proof, I think the Governor General is within her rights to tell her Prime Minister that she refuses the ruse. I hope she asks for some real proof of his self-pronounced non-confidence in his government. That will only happen in Harper losing a vote on a serious matter in the House of Commons. That has not happened yet. That means Harper is premature in his push for an election.


Respect for the Rule of Law and our Constitutional Conventions are critical issues for Mr. Harper to earn and sustain the respect of the citizens of Canada…who are after all his true political masters. His wanton disrespect for the real concerns of citizens along with his pointless waste of taxpayer money on an unnecessary election will be at his peril! It proves he is not fit to govern us if he can't even govern himself.

Citizens will not look kindly on Harper spending $400,000,000.00 of their hard earned money just because it is to his advantage in seeking more power. That is serious money that could go into improving health care access or protecting our food supply or fixing climate change. It is not public money that is well spent just to feed his personal partisan hubris and help him preserve and promote his passion for political bullying.

I implore the Governor General to take her Prime Minister to task on Sunday and require that he actually proves, beyond a reasonable doubt, with substantive evidence, that he has actually lost the confidence of the House of Commons. Tough to do when the House is not even sitting.

If she is satisfied there is actual proof of non-confidence on the basis of substantive evidence, when the meet this Sunday, then let the "games" begin. If she is not so satisfied, then I implore her to stop the gamesmanship and insist that her Prime Minister govern until he actually loses the confidence of the House in a real vote of non-confidence on a matter of substance - not superciliousness.