Charest wants Landry to call elections and not to use the possibility of a U.S.-led war on Iraq as a stall tactic:
Military action in Iraq shouldn’t delay the expected election battle between Quebec political parties, Liberal Leader Jean Charest said Wednesday.
Charest was reacting to recent comments by Premier Bernard Landry that he might have to postpone calling the election if war starts in Iraq.
Does anyone else think that the system – where the party in power gets to choose the timing of the election – stinks? I personally think Canada should move to an American-like system of fixed election dates. Then the party in power can’t wait to call the election until it’s doing better in the polls.
There’s a strong argument that the parliamentary system is better than the American fixed-date system. With the American system, the minute that someone is elected, the campaign for the next election begins…do you really want a system where people are talking about elections years before they take place? We talk about them in Canada, but certainly not until an election is pending to be called, like in Quebec.
I don’t think that has much to do with the fixed versus flexible date, Stuart. An election still has to be called within 5 years.
Down here in Newfoundland, Roger Grimes (the Premier, at least for now) is actually talking about bringing in legislation mandating fixed election dates. Here’s hoping.