With Stephane Dion making public grumblings about forcing an election in the fall, and with the Marc Mayrand allowing the Liberals to focus on party fundraising instead of leadership debt retirement, the Conservatives are now gearing up for an election. This leads me to ask the question: are the Conservatives going to play yet another game of 'Parliamentary chicken' with the Liberals again?
After successfully playing the game earlier this year with their first round of 'tough on crime' legislation, Stephen Harper's Conservative government appears to be moving forward with plans for a second set of crime legislation reforms, just in time for the fall session. Coincidence? I don't think so.
The Conservatives were perfectly content last spring to have possibly been brought down on their crime legislation. However, at the last minute, and after much fireworks and in-fighting, the Liberals capitulated and allowed for the Tory crime bill to become law. It only makes sense to wait and see if the Liberals are actually serious about having an election, and try to bring forward yet another round of unpalatable (for the Liberals) justice reforms, and daring Dion to bring them down over the issue of crime.
In this scenario, if the government falls on the new crime legislation, the Tories would not only have the ability to campaign against Stephane Dion's 'tax on everything' carbon tax, but they would also be able to campaign on the issue of crime. Crime and justice are of course the policy areas where they are viewed as stronger on than the Liberals. The other outcome would be equally favourable, allowing the Conservatives would see their new justice bill become law, embarrassing the Liberals in the process.
Let's see if Stephane Dion and the Liberals chicken out again.
