Stephen Harper To Michael Ignatieff: Canadians Don’t Want A Summer Election

Most Canadians don’t seem to want a summer election. And neither does Stephen Harper.

The Prime Minister held a rare news conference in Ottawa on Monday, just hours after Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff presented his demands to keep his party from bringing down the Conservative government on Friday.

Ignatieff made his decision to support the economic report card issued by the minority Tories on Monday – but with conditions.

The Grits asked for changes to employment insurance before the House of Commons rises for the summer at the end of the week. Ignatieff also demanded more information about stimulus spending and the ballooning deficit, infrastructure spending, and the medical isotope shortage.

“The real question is, does Mr. Harper want Parliament to work?” Ignatieff wonders. “He can make it work this week or by extending the session. If he responds honestly to the concerns we have raised, by giving Canadians the transparency and accountability they need from their government.

“But he cannot expect us to continue support on the basis of a report or a performance like this. Canadians deserve better.”

Last week, the Liberals threatened to try to pull the plug on the minority government if the report did not show real progress in the rolling out of $22.7 billion in stimulus spending. The opposition had demanded a total of three budget updates and the second was presented last week.

Harper is more than willing to meet with the Grit boss, but warns there likely isn’t time to address all his concerns in such a short span of time.

“Mr. Ignatieff said that he does not want an election, and it’s clear I don’t want one either nor do Canadians,” he states. “There’s a very easy way to avoid elections. That is to continue with the economic action plan, and to continue with the expenditure and infrastructure plan and all parliament has to do is vote … for the bill.”

The P.M. says there’s already a big change coming to employment insurance that will provide coverage to self-employed people. “That’s a very major design change we are looking at in the fall. Those kinds of changes, and other major changes, cannot be done on the back of an envelope in a few days. They do require some careful thought …”

“But I think demanding major undefined changes in the space of a few days is not a realistic approach.”

The Bloc Quebecois and the New Democratic Party have already said they will not support the government in a confidence vote scheduled for Friday.

“The Liberal leader didn’t give any benchmarks as to what he wanted to see with the employment insurance benefits,” noted CityNews Political Specialist Richard Madan.

He doesn’t want to give the same impression of his predecessor, Stephane Dion, of rolling over each time and supporting the Conservative minority.

“Overall, there is still the possibility of an election on Friday…but it is unlikely.”

Kady O’Malley of Maclean’s offers analysis of the showdown

Harper hopes that’s what happens, too. “The government is ready for anything that might happen,” he concludes. “But I am planning on governing, and this is what Canadians want.”

P.M. Stephen Harper: Recovery Under Way

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Summer Elections: A Past Of Less Presence

 

With just a few exceptions, summer votes understandably wind up with some of the lowest turnouts in Canadian history. Even going as far back as the 1800s, when Canada was a vastly different place, the idea of casting a ballot in the few nice weather months cast a shadow over most people and left some holes in the polls.

 

Here’s a look at just some of our past summer votes. (For the purpose of this list, summer votes are defined as when the campaign is called, followed by the vote just over a month later, unless otherwise indicated.)

 

Election Dates: August 7-September 20, 1867
Voter Turnout: 73.1%
Comment: It’s a good number for a summer vote and it was held over a long period of time, but then again, it was our very first one. After more than a month of voting, Sir John A. McDonald emerged as Canada’s first Prime Minister. There were only four provinces and 181 MPs.

 

Election Date: July 20-October 1872
Voter Turnout: 70.3%
Comment: In the early days before the laws were changed and in an era before mass communication technology could get everyone the same message at once, Canadian election campaigns and votes could linger on for months at a time.

 

Election Date: July 30, 1930
Voter Turnout: 73.5%
Comment: The economy is tanking and jobs are disappearing. The bottom drops out of the stock market amid worldwide economic uncertainty. Sound familiar? It’s the prelude to the Great Depression, which plays a huge role in the vote and one of the reasons the turnout is higher than other summer elections. The Conservatives wound up handily beating the ruling Liberals, 143 seats to 90, as concerns over the economy spark demands for change.

 

Election Date: August 10, 1953
Voter Turnout: 67.5%
Comment: Not much surprise here. With Canadians in summer vacation mode and mostly happy, the Liberals win a fifth consecutive majority, fronted by Louis St Laurent. It’s the fourth lowest turnout in Canadian history to that time.

 

Election Date: July 8, 1974

Voter Turnout: 71.0%
Comment: The last true full summer election in Canada has Pierre Trudeau defeating Robert Stanfield for the Liberals’ first majority government since 1968. The major issue: inflation, with Stanfield proposing a three month price and wage control and Trudeau ridiculing the idea. A year later, the Liberals would introduce a  wage and price control system of their own.

 

 

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The Elections Of The Century

There have been four federal elections since the turn of the century and it appears almost certain that sooner or later, Stephen Harper’s shaky minority perch will be pulled out from under him and we’ll be heading back to the polls – again.

 

Here’s a look at what we did over the last four votes.

 

October 14, 2008

 

Canadian Election #: 40

 

Main issues: With his Conservatives stuck in a minority status and the polls indicating weak support for a Liberal party led by the unpopular Stephane Dion, Stephen Harper decided to roll the dice on an election and dissolved what he called a “dysfunctional Parliament.” With many Canadians insisting another election wasn’t needed just two years after the previous one and despite the unpopularity of Dion’s “Green Shift” plan, Harper didn’t quite get the victory he was hoping for.

 

Final seat count: 

 

Conservatives: 143

Liberals: 77

Bloc: 49

NDP: 37

Independent: 2

 

Result: Conservative minority government

 

V
oter turnout: 58.8%, the lowest in history.

 

January 23, 2006

 

Canadian Election #: 39

 

Main issues: Leadership, as the tentacles from the sponsorship scandal continued to haunt Paul Martin’s Liberals. There were also questions about the economy, same sex marriage and income trusts. But the question of honest government seemed to come to the fore.

 

Final seat count:

 

Conservatives: 124

Liberals: 103

Bloc: 51

NDP: 29

Independent: 1

 

Result: Conservative minority government

 

Voter turnout: 64.7%

 

June 28, 2004

 

Canadian Election #: 38, and our last vote to actually occur in the summer, although the election was called in the spring.

 

Main issue: The sponsorship scandal, which saw millions of dollars in taxpayer money handed over to Liberal-friendly firms in Quebec with no real work being done. While topics like health care, the economy and taxes were also raised, it was the ghost of the Chretien government past that came back to haunt then-leader Paul Martin and helped boost the fortunes of the newly united Conservatives under Stephen Harper.

 

Final seat count:

 

Liberals: 135

Conservatives: 99

Bloc: 54

NDP: 19

Independent: 1

 

Result: Liberal minority government.

 

Voter turnout: 60.9%, at the time the lowest in history, partly attributed to the fact it happened in the summer.

 

November 27, 2000

 

Canadian Election #: 37

 

Main issues: Health care and the disarray of the right leaning parties, as the PCs, led by the returning Joe Clark, opposed any merger with the Cdn. Alliance, then helmed by Stockwell Day. The Liberals, with Jean Chretien in charge, sought to take advantage of the divide, calling the vote only three years into their mandate.

 

Final seat count:

 

Liberals: 172

Canadian Alliance: 66

Bloc Quebecois: 38

NDP: 13

Progressive Conservatives: 12

Independent: 1

 

Result: Liberal majority government

 

Voter turnout: 61.2%

 

Source: Elections Canada