Federal Election?

The longevity of the current government is quickly working up towards a record in Canada. It has been 771 days since the last election, only twice before have minority parliaments gone on longer than this in Canadian history - those being in the Pearson era.

On September 8th of this year the government will have lasted the longest between elections with a minority. The opposition voices the threat to bring down the government but so far have not followed through with the threat.

So why is there no election? Ultimately I believe this is because none of the parties can see themselves doing well enough to make the risk of an election worth it. In many ways we are in a world much like the mid 1960s when we had three successive minority governments, two of them the longest in Canadian history.

Certainly Stephen Harper is proving to be a very skilled PM in how he is managing to keep his government going. This is very much in contrast to Paul Martin in 2004 - 2006 or Joe Clark in 1979 - 1980. His handling of parliament is even better than Trudeau's in his minority government of 1972 to 1974.

On April 2nd, Stephen Harper will pass Paul Martin in longevity as Prime Minister.