Hey! Look over there!

Defying his own fixed election date legislation, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has called a General Election for Tuesday, October 14. In yesterday's opening salvos, Green Party leader Elizabeth May called the upcoming vote the 'most important in history', and that voters should tune out other 'distractions'. Ms. May and this page have a few differences, but rest assured, distraction makes up a significant bulk in the Tory bag of electoral tricks, particularly when it comes to the campaign in British Columbia.

It's one thing to stage a vote the day after Thanksgiving, when suburban and rural Tory voters will be raptured in the glow of turkey dinners, proselytizing, trolling the aisles at Wal-Mart and token charity efforts, while the rest of us are struggling to make out way back to work or campus. In British Columbia, it's another thing to stage the vote in the middle of campaigns for the November 15 Municipal elections, and what will be the final Legislature session before the May 12, 2009 Provincial election - at least Gordon Campbell respects fixed election dates, even if he can't respect collective agreements.

This page submits that all these elections are important, which is part of the reason why Stephen Harper is going now. British Columbia is probably the closest thing Canada has to a 'swing state', and this election could swing the Tories way after the polls close in the Pacific Time Zone if Federal Liberals can't work together because some support the B.C. Liberals and some support Carole James and the BCNDP. Even an electoral breakthrough in the City of Vancouver is possible if centre-left voters feel they owe more to Gregor Robertson and Vision Vancouver in the quest to take back City Hall than they do to a Federal campaign.

This page has no problem with a loaded electoral calendar, but then again, this page took several political science courses and is on all the right mailing lists. Most British Columbians aren't, which, in a close election which could deal a majority to the Conservatives, October 14 could be a lucky day for the Prime Minister.