With the NDP and BQ having threatened to force non-confidence votes on the environment and Afghanistan respectively, and with Dion joining in on that threat, I’m beginning to think a Fall Election appears a lot more likely, despite CW amongst the pundit class apparently being still that any election won’t happen till the Spring, or some even predicting til the election is mandated by the fixed date in 2009.
As I’ve previously stated at the bottom of this blogpiece, I think if you’re going to force an election, I believe in the Liberals case, the environment/Climate Change Bill/non-compliance with Kyoto is the issue we should be going on, if we do go. I hope Dion sticks to his guns and not allow some of his poll-reading advisers to back down if polls aren’t optimal. If you think the Conservatives actions are wrong and possibly in contempt of Parliament, backing down from principle in deference to a poll or 2 would look weak. I also agree with some of my fellow Progressive and Liberal bloggers that if you wait til the Spring, you give the Cons. a 2nd chance to try out the “something for everyone” Budget again, and so I think you hand Harper the advantage if you allow him to try and do even more handouts.
Oh, and it was rather humorous to see Strategic Council and the Globe and Mail’s analysts do their Conservative-loving best to try and explain how a dead-heat tie between the Conservatives and the Liberals was great news for Harper. Nice contortions there, folks; I think you need a chiropractor to get all those knots out of your back from all the spinning you did there.
UPDATE: Just for my Conservative propagandist in the comment thread, here’s a detailed analysis from Steve and how the Globe and SC’s attempt to tell us how great this poll was for them was just a bunch of Conservative-friendly analysts spin doctoring the results as furious as possible.
You really don't understand the concept of solid support vs soft support? That's good news, let's hope the liberal braintrust doesn't understand it either.