OTTAWA — Canadian voters can mark Oct. 19, 2015 on their calendars as the date of the next federal election — but they might want to use a pencil and keep an eraser handy.
The date is a result of a bill introduced in 2006, shortly after the Tories won their first minority government. At the time, then-democratic reform minister Rob Nicholson introduced the legislation to establish precise election dates. Under the bill, which passed in 2007, Canadians are supposed to go to the polls on the third Monday in October, in the fourth calendar year after a general election.
As it happened, the government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper didn't follow the bill's guidance.
In 2008, Harper convinced the then-governor general that Parliament had become dysfunctional and should be dissolved, sending Canadians to the ballot boxes.
Advocacy group Democracy Watch soon asked the Federal Court to rule that the prime minister had broken his own election law.
The court sided with the government, noting that nothing in the law affected the powers of the governor general, including the power to dissolve Parliament. The Federal Court of Appeal upheld the decision, and when Democracy Watch asked the Supreme Court of Canada to weigh in, the request was rejected.
So, "unless (Harper) decides to observe the law, it's not worth the paper it's written on," said Errol Mendes, a law professor at the University of Ottawa. "He already proved you can get around the law."
But Thursday, a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister's Office said the government will follow the law.
"Canada has a law in place for fixed election dates, brought in by our government," said Sara MacIntyre. "We have no plans to change this."
According to the Constitution, the longest a government can sit without an election is five years. So some wait to see if Harper will extend his majority past the next fixed election date, which is in under five years.
"He can ignore the next election date," Mendes argued. "He ignored it with the 2008 election, and the weakness of the law was reinforced with the Federal Court's decision."
But aside from Harper's move to an early election in 2008 (the opposition, not Harper, spurred the 2011 election), there's no reason to believe the Conservatives will skirt the law, said Dennis Pilon, who teaches Canadian politics at the University of Victoria.
Fixed election dates have been successfully legislated in British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories and New Brunswick. Manitoba, Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan have passed legislation and will be having their first fixed-date elections this year.
"Here in B.C., the provincial Liberals have stuck to their fixed election date like clockwork," Pilon said. "(But) if the PM has any reason not to stick to the fixed election date, there is really nothing stopping him from ignoring it."
Read more: http://www.canada.com/news/decision-canada/Critics+fear+Harper+will+flout+fixed+election/4812415/story.html#ixzz1N3tBv44V
