Breaking: Harper to call election for October 14th

onSep 4, 2008 @ 13:49 PDT

MONTREAL (AFP) — Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper is set Sunday to seek to dissolve parliament and call snap elections for October 14, ending the longest minority government in the country’s history, media reported Thursday.

Press group Canwest and public broadcaster Radio-Canada reported that Harper will meet with Canada’s governor general on Sunday morning to make his request, bringing an end to his minority Conservative government and prompting an immediate campaign season that would last less than six weeks.

A reaction from the prime minister’s office had yet to be issued.

Harper had indicated Wednesday that he had made up his mind about the election and would inform Canadians of his decision “in the coming days.”

Harper, who has headed a minority government since January 2006, has insisted in recent weeks that elections were inevitable to break a deadlock with opposition parties on several issues.

However, he faces criticism that doing so would break his own timetable for the next elections in October 2009 – a date he set into law, but which allows for leeway in the case of minority governments.

DeSmogBlog will be revving up its Canada election coverage with new projects aimed at ensuring Canadians are well aware of the 2 years Harper and his Conservative government wasted paying lip service to the issue of climate change, which has been the top-of-mind issue in the country pretty much since the Conservatives first took office in January, 2006.

By Kevin Grandia

Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the “Top 50 Tweeters” on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevin’s research into the “climate denial industry” and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Koch’s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea party networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a “Certified Expert” on the political and community organizing platform NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the world’s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.