To the polls

It now looks pretty certain that Canadians will also be going to the polls this fall to elect a new federal government. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is expected to ask Governor General Michaëlle Jean to dissolve Parliament because it has become dysfunctional.

We could be voting by mid October, just ahead of the U.S elections.

Chantal Hébert has analysis:

The only reason the government is still in place is an extraordinary Liberal decision to abstain from key votes. But if a Parliament is about more than the government, then the Liberal failure to act as a full-fledged Official Opposition has made the dynamics of this one dysfunctional.

The dysfunction that is rooted in the current Liberal leadership predicament is in evidence even when Parliament is not sitting.

Looking at that party's body language since Harper set out to terminate his current mandate, it is as if a lobotomized brain governed the Liberals' right and left hands. While one hand has been pushing Canadians to vote the Conservatives out of office in a fall election, the other is trying to stop Harper from actually calling one.

It was just two months ago that Stéphane Dion unveiled his Green Shift plan to deal with climate change. At the time, the Liberal leader made no secret of the fact that he was using the summer to ramp his party up for a fall campaign. Since then, the Liberals have systematically revved up their anti-Conservative rhetoric.

In spite of that, there are lingering questions as to the Liberal election-readiness.

Stephen Harper seems ready to take on the Liberals and their shifty green shaft carbon tax.

Update and bump: related - Harper aims to crush Liberals

“Strategically, this is sort of a prolonged war of attrition.”