Liberal Leader Stephane Dion was in Montreal on Saturday campaigning on behalf of candidates contesting two upcoming byelections. But despite the election atmosphere, Dion still wouldn't say when -- or even if -- he'll pull the plug on the minority Conservative government.
Dion said the Liberals are ready for an election and that his party will choose the right time.
"Politics is like fishing," he told CTV Montreal. "You need to strike at a good time."
He also criticized the prime minister for threatening to force an election over a "dysfunctional" Parliament. In the past, Harper has supported his own party's legislation that set a fixed election date for 2009.
Harper made the election threat because of a supposed controversy surrounding parliamentary committee hearings into the Conservatives' "in-and-out" advertising scheme during the 2006 election campaign. Canada's elections watchdog is trying to determine if the Tories broke regulations by the way they paid for local and national advertising.
The Tories said separate parliamentary hearings into the matter are little more than a "kangaroo court."
"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 last Thursday.
His remarks fuelled speculation his minority government will try to trigger a fall election.
The Liberals are accusing the prime minister of backing away from his own principles.
"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," Liberal MP Dominic LeBlanc said this past week.
With a report by CTV Montreal and files from The Canadian Press
