Prime Minister Stephen Harper made sabre-rattling comments Thursday, raising speculation that a fall election may be on the horizon.
"I think that (Liberal Leader Stephane) Dion will have to make up his mind and I think quite frankly I'm going to have to make a judgment in the next little while as to whether or not this Parliament can function productively," Harper said.
In Newfoundland and Labrador to make a funding announcement, Harper said he plans to do something about the country's "dysfunctional" Parliament.
"I do think it's fair to say that in the past few months, and particularly over the summer, we have seen increasing signs that this Parliament is really not working very well anymore, it's becoming increasingly dysfunctional," Harper said.
He did not elaborate further, but his remarks fuelled speculation his minority Conservative government will try to trigger a fall election.
Harper said the parliamentary process has "stopped working" over the past few months, although his government has managed to get things done during its tenure.
"We have important legislation that is stalled in the Senate by the Liberal party, we have other legislation that is obstructed in the House of Commons, principally by Dion. We have a committee system that is increasingly in chaos and we have Mr. Dion regularly threatening to force an election, so I think you have to make up your mind pretty soon."
Queue the "blame game"
But Liberal and NDP MPs blamed the committee "chaos" surrounding the Conservative "in-and-out" ad controversy squarely on Harper's parties.
"The Conservatives' antics are just dragging this committee into the gutter," NDP MP Pat Martin said.
"It's Mr. Harper and his house leader and his whip who have been orchestrating the dysfunctionality of this particular parliament," Liberal MP Ralph Goodale said.
NDP Jack Layton invited the Liberals to bring down the government after hearing Harper's comments.
"Its time has come," Layton said.
"A major part of whatever is dysfunctional is coming from the government side. He is choosing to cover over that, which is another reason why people don't trust Mr. Harper."
Government House Leader Peter Van Loan backed Harper's remarks, saying the minority Conservative government wanted to govern until at least October 2009.
"We actually passed a law to that effect," he told Â鶹´«Ã½net later on Thursday.
"What we are saying to Stephane Dion is make up your mind for once and stick to it, either force that election or co-operate and allow us to govern, stop the delaying and obstruction tactics."
The Liberals say Harper's posturing mocks the fixed-date law.
"I don't underestimate the prime minister's hypocrisy at all," Liberal justice critic Dominic LeBlanc told The Canadian Press. "This is the prime minister who made a virtue of passing fixed-election date legislation, and now he's threatening to cross Sussex Drive and go see his neighbour, the Governor General, and ask for an election because he's fabricating a crisis where none exists."
Harper's comments come on the heels of a poll that shows the Conservatives to be neck-and-neck with the Liberals, with the Grits actually slightly ahead -- 33 per cent to 32 per cent in support.
However, there was a small consolation prize for Harper in The Canadian Press Harris-Decima survey. Almost twice as many Canadians said they preferred Harper to Dion as a leader.
Last month, Harper dared Dion to send Canadians to the polls.
"Either let the current Parliament work and let us get on with our mandate, or the voters themselves will decide," Harper told a crowd of 1,500 supporters in the Quebec community of St-Agapit in July.
"Mr. Dion must decide to fish or cut bait."
With a report from Rosemary Thompson and files from The Canadian Press
