BLAZING CONSERVATIVES

“Listen to him, men, he's just crazy enough to do it!”
~Dr. Sam Johnson, Blazing Saddles

I was watching a news report recently about the election readiness of the Conservative Party of Canada. The party is insisting that they don’t want an election, and every poll shows that the majority of Canadians agree with them. That hasn’t stopped them from gearing up for the inevitable dropping of the writ.

Why not! Every political party is ready for a vote and with a minority government most have kept themselves in fighting (if not fiscal) trim waiting for the PM to call on the Governor-General and asked that she dissolve Parliament.The thing about the report is the Conservatives keep insisting, they don’t want an election, but they continually try to goad the opposition into forcing one and have set up a series of trip wires (for the Liberals especially) trying to force a demise of the own mandate.

Stephen Harper reminds me of Sheriff Bart in “Blazing Saddles” when he put a gun to his own head and fools gullible townspeople into thinking he has taken himself hostage. On one hand threatening to blow his government away and on the other pleading for its life.

Some are confused as to why the Conservatives are so itching to get to the electorate. The NDP and Bloc are constantly looking to force elections, but recent polls show the Conservatives are not only in danger of not getting the majority they openly covet, but perhaps being forced to move back to the opposition benches.

The reason the Conservatives might drop the hammer on themselves is because their internal polling might show something that the independent pollsters aren’t, or that Stephen Harper figures that in a lengthy campaign that Stephane Dion will wilt and fold like the New England Patriots on Super Bowl Sunday. The most likely scenario is that Stephen Harper wants to avoid an election in a downturned economy that many economists are forecasting.

The Conservatives ran a successful one man campaign in 2006 and may figure if it worked once, why not go back to it. They have already announced that leadership will be the main plank in their platform and are going to run a character assassination campaign against Stephane Dion.

The difference between 2006 and 2008 is that the Liberal have distance themselves from Ad Scam and the what are the chances of the Mounties dropping an unfounded income trust bombshell on the Grits. Plus, now Stephen Harper has a record to defend and after two years of occupying 24 Sussex the Conservative mantra of blaming everything on “a dozen years of Liberal rule” has started to wear thin. Still, with no traction in the polls and a decline in his personal approval rating Stephen Harper still seems hellbound to hit the election trail.

As Harriett Van Johnson pleaded “Isn't anybody going to help that poor man?”