Resisting the pull of cynicism since 1969.

Monday, August 18, 2008

Question for the more-informed-than-I

From this CBC piece:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has called a fourth federal byelection for Sept. 22 in the Toronto riding of Don Valley West, setting the stage for a possible general election later this fall.
How does calling a byelection for September 22nd "set the stage" for a general election this fall? If the byelection call is at all connected with the possibility of a fall general election, I'd tend to agree with Northern B.C. Dipper and deduce that this implies the opposite. What am I missing?

3 comments:

Ian said...

I think the connection is this:

If the Conservatives win the byelection it means they have momentum and can call a federal election, if they lose, they'll sit on their asses until his "fixed" election date.

Anonymous said...

The title of this post shows you assume you know less than the media covering politics.

That is a very foolish assumption.

Ben (The Tiger in Exile) said...

As your other commenters have pointed out, it lets Harper gauge the state of the electorate.

But yes, the media is terribly uninformed about Canadian politics and constitutional law.