I DON'T WANT AN ELECTION

Stephen Harper and the Conservatives had a big rally in Mississauga over the weekend. (I wasn't there, because, well, I live in the West now and don't have the funds to travel all the way to Mississauga to campaign training efforts like that one this weekend. Even if I still lived down there I wouldn't have gone because it cost $300.)

It was part of a big campaign training weekend. Meanwhile, the party brass have been sending letters and emails to all the party faithful, telling them to be ready for an election and asking people to donate money and be ready.

I know, because I got one of these emails myself.

I'm not surprised, though. I've known for months that the party was getting ready for a May election and wat privy to all these rumors and the rest of it. So the party's plans to "be ready for an election" and to send these letters out are right on schedule. After all this is a minority Parliament and they are showing the world that they are ready, no matter what happens. But that letter from the party just bothered me. It just seems like the party is all rarin' to go for an election that nobody else in the country seems to want. They seem to be too interested in wanting to dare the opposition to defeat them in the Commons so that they can go to the polls and smoke everyone.

You know, I really don't know why Harper and the gang would want an election. For crying out loud the Tories are in power! And they should relax and enjoy being the government, and work on getting things done, darnet!! And not only that, but this was a very hard-won change of government and I don't want them squandering it all so soon! There's a lot on the line. I think it's foolish to risk it all for a majority that might not even happen. In fact a minority victory might not even happen, these polls have been too close. I know Stephane Dion has been a complete disaster as Liberal leader and his "green" plans for a return to Trudeau-style big government are going to threaten the financial health of this country. This is a guy who would bring in another National Energy Program given half the chance! Dion is a disaster waiting to happen. But Canadians have been stupid enough to vote Liberal before, and they'll do it again given the opportunity. That's why I don't want any election.

Tomorrow, Jim Flaherty stands up in the House of Commons to present his Budget--- which, of course, is a matter of confidence. The rumor mill has it that the Tories will present a budget that will be so unpopular with the opposition parties that it will force an election, and that there will be no deals cut, nothing. I think this is a foolhardy approach. If I were the Tories I would go out there and put forward a positive, popular budget and do the utmost to make sure it passes! I don't want these fools engineering their own defeat!! That's a recipe for disaster in my book. Didn't they learn from what happened to Joe Clark, or for that matter, Paul Martin?

I don't want to see the Tories put the government and all of the good things it is doing for the country at risk, even if they bring it down on purpose. And suppose they don't get their majority in the election? Then we'll get stuck with another couple of years of Liberals voting down the Tories in the Senate, and nothing will get accomplished. And then by the time the Liberals defeat the government again they'll have a new leader and be able to punt Harper completely.

I could handle a new election in maybe six months from now, or a year from now. But people don't want any more elections. As someone who's perfectly happy with the government in power, I don't want one either.