Those AGAINST the 2008 Federal Election

On September 7th, Stephen Harper will ask the Governor General to dissolve Parliament and call for a federal election on October 14th, 2008.

This election makes a complete mockery of the fixed election law (which calls for an election in October 2009) which the Harper government introduced, supported and passed. The point of fixed election dates was to stop prime ministers from being political opportunists. Yet this is exactly what Harper is doing.

Harper claims Parliament is dysfunctional and cites this as the reason for calling an election. Really? Consider the following:
-the average minority government lasts 18 months; Harper's minority government will have lasted 31 months
-the majority of Harper's legislative agenda passed through Parliament
-parliamentary committees have not been allowed to operate as they should, but this is mainly the fault of the governing party, not the opposition

Harper clearly has no reason to call an election.

Therefore, we, the undersigned, call on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to apologize to all Canadians for deliberately misleading them. It has become apparent that Mr. Harper had no intent to follow through with his plan for parliamentary reform. We also demand that Harper and the Conservative Party pay back all tax monies wasted on this illegal election.

We deserve better.