Harper: Election could come at any time

This is from the Chinese People's Daily. It isn't too bad an article although the Green Party and Bloc Quebecois do not get mentioned.

Canadian PM says election could come "at any time"
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned on Saturday that an election could come "at any time," two days before his monority government tables its second budget.

Harper, who went to power in February last year, made the remarks when delivering a campaign style speech to about 5,000 party nominees, parliamentarians and volunteers in Toronto.

"We are here to plan," said Harper. "Plan for a future that could include an election ... An election that the opposition could impose on Canadians at any time."

Harper's government, which has only 125 seats in the 308-seat parliament, is to deliver its second budget on Monday, and any votes on budgets are matters of confidence in the government. If the opposition votes down the budget, an election will be triggered.

The prime minister has maintained he did not want an election, but said Saturday he was "ready and willing" to put the party's track record on issues such as crime to voters.

In the past few months, Harper has announced, in a manner of pre-election spending spree, some 13 billion Canadian dollars (about 11billion U.S. dollars) in financial commitments for environment programs,farmers, public transit, medical wait-times, AIDS research, border safety and crime prevention.

A Strategic Counsel poll, released on Friday, suggested that Conservatives, Liberals and New Democratic Party (NDP) -- Canada's three major parties -- were in a stalemate with the same support results as the last time an election was called.

Harper's Tories had the support of 36 percent, while the Liberals garnered 31 percent, according to the survey of 1,000 Canadians conducted on March 10-13. The NDP had 15 percent. Analysts say Harper may want an election in order to win a majority government.

Source: Xinhua