I’ll be on CBC-TV’s Power and Politics this evening with my pals Monte Solberg and Brad Lavigne, talking about the return of Parliament. Here’s some of the stuff I may say, taken from this morning’s Hill Times:
KINSELLA: I want to believe Tim. I really do. But here’s the problem: on the evening of Sept. 15, I am reliably informed—when a minority of churlish Ottawa scribes were cackling about the departure of my friend Kory Teneycke—an interesting conference call took place.
The conference call involved senior folks within the Conservative Party. These folks were told to be prepared for an election call that could come as soon as Oct. 1. I shit you not.
The fact that this call took place at all is perplexing. For example, the polls suggest there is a rather excellent chance that the Harper Reformatories could, well, you know, lose the election. I mean, call me crazy—and plenty do—but why would evil strategic genius Stephen Harper do something as unstrategic as that?
Fear.
The tall foreheads within the Conservative Party—and there are some—fear a number of things. First and foremost, they fear the economy getting worse again. The jobs’ numbers, the housing numbers, and the grim economic data emanating from the U.S. portend that bad times may be here again.
Secondly, the Reformatory brain trust— an oxymoron, I know, but bear with me— fear further slippage in public opinion polls if they wait too long. The Great Summer of 2010 Census Debacle—which should have never become as big a deal as it did— showed the Conservatives that the country is growing weary of their modus operandi: nasty, brutish and short-sighted.
Thirdly and finally, I believe the Conservative Party has started to fear Michael Ignatieff. His summer long bus tour was not the unmitigated disaster they had hoped and predicted it would be. Instead, the tour revealed the Liberal leader to be rather adept on the hustings, with a manner that increasing numbers of voters were warming up to.
That all said, do I believe that an election is imminent? God knows.
But it sure is fun to endlessly speculate about it with my buddies Powers and Lavigne in the pages of The Hill Times!
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