Is Canada heading toward a spring election?

So it seems Canada might be going to the polls come April or May for the fourth time in seven years. None of the political parties are saying they want an election, at least not publicly, but you can already smell the hate in the air.

Stephen Harper fired “warning shots” at opposition parties last week by running television ads attacking each party leader on a personal level. This prompted retaliatory ads by the Liberals attacking Harper’s Policies, not a bad start for two people who say they don’t want to head to the polls.

I’m sure in the back of their minds they’re ready to wage war. Harper wants to prove that his Conservatives can finally win a majority and will therefore make the budget impossible for opposition parties to support. Harper knows that the Liberal party will never be weaker than it is now and must capitalize, his career depends on it.

On the other hand, Elizabeth May, Jack Layton, Gilles Duceppe & Michael Ignatieff must be eager to end five years of un-progressive management (Layton already has a war room waiting). There might be only one Liberal Party, but all four parties have liberal ideology and know full well that Harper is taking the country in the opposite direction to where they wish it to travel.

The poll numbers of today are within one or two percentage points of what they were back during the election of 2008 and really haven’t changed that much since Harper first took power back in 2006. This means, of course, that Harper has been leading the country for the past five years with roughly the support of 35% of the population.

If an election is called this spring and the campaigns run scandal free it’s safe to say that we’re going to wind up with the same result; another Conservative minority with a couple seats changing here and there. That’s not to say that an election this spring will be a waste of time and money, it’s what comes after the election that will determine that.

Will the Liberals sit quietly aside and let the Conservatives try and lead for another couple of years or will the opposition parties finally band together and start to get this country on a roll? The government of this country has governed too long without the support of most of its people; hopefully this ends one way or another in the next few months with a more progressive government or coalition.