There will be essentially no spending limits for this election, since the bulk of it will take place before the writ is dropped in the final few days of January, after the Harper government is defeated on its budget. This, of course, is of immense benefit to the Conservatives, who are sitting on a pile of cash, while the election-weary Coalition forces are bereft of money.

Furthermore, a ton of money to be spent on this campaign will be coming from you, the taxpayers. That’s because the Conservatives are still government until defeated on January 29th or 30th, and will be using ministerial budgets, free MP travel, householders, ten percenters and every other resource to wage war on the Coalition. These things, as you might imagine, are a huge advantage to the governing party.

This has been engineered by Stephen Harper as his final, hyper-partisan act. In persuading the Governor-General to shut down Parliament, effective immediately, the guy has just erased the leadership of Canada at a time when leadership is most required. He’s shown himself to be an extraordinary coward, running away from the House of Commons rather than face a vote and the Parliamentary process a prime minister should be expected to uphold.

In this action, Stephen Harper has disgraced his office by shuttering the very chamber in which the people of Canada have a voice. So, between now and the end of January, we will be adrift. Shame on those we elected, who formed a government, to so abdicate their responsibilities.

As I said yesterday, whether or not you agree with the notion of a Coalition government, supported by a majority of MPs, we have been moved onto a new plane of crisis. Our democracy has been hijacked and replaced by a ruling party that now does not have the confidence of a majority of Canadians. That Her Excellency would support this is an immense disappointment, but not an overwhelming surprise. This may be our last Governor-General.

What comes next?

I’ll address that shortly. For now, let us grieve a little for what’s been lost.

linkback: http://www.garth.ca/weblog/2008/12/04/coward-2/