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OTTAWA — Prime Minister Stephen Harper is considering dissolving Parliament and forcing an election within a month if he fails to find “common ground” with his opposition counterparts, a senior Conservative official said yesterday.
Mr. Harper's office is setting up meetings with the leaders of the Liberal Party, the Bloc Québécois and the NDP before the House of Commons is due to return to work on Sept. 15.
He has set a high bar for the meetings, saying he needs a clear sense that his 21/2-year-old minority government can govern effectively.
“Our objective is obviously to get some clarity as to whether there is some common ground, enough common ground to have a fall [parliamentary] agenda,” said Mr. Harper's director of communication, Kory Teneycke.
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The Conservative government survived a string of confidence motions in the spring, and Mr. Harper will need to make a convincing case to the public that Parliament has become dysfunctional if he wants to force a fall election without being defeated by a vote in the House.
He will also have to persuade Governor-General Michaëlle Jean that there is no other alternative, even though Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion has yet to publicly say he will try to bring down the minority government.
Mr. Harper will only make a final decision after the private one-on-one talks with the opposition leaders, but Mr. Teneycke said their most recent public comments have not been positive.
“We're looking for common ground, and the Prime Minister will make a determination after those meetings, based on those discussions,” Mr. Teneycke said.
The possible dissolution of Parliament stands in contrast to the Prime Minister's commitment to fixed-election dates intended to prevent governments from launching elections at times of their own choosing. The economy is worsening, with the rate of inflation yesterday hitting a five-year high.
Officials from all three opposition parties confirmed yesterday they are in discussion with the Prime Minister's Office to set up the meetings, with Mr. Harper, but said no dates have been set.
The PMO said the goal is to hold the meetings “soon,” ideally before three Ontario and Quebec by-elections to be held Sept. 8.
Mr. Teneycke said no decision has been made to pull the plug on Parliament in coming weeks, but he made it clear that possibility is in the cards.
“Only one person can make that decision, and it's the Prime Minister. We're not ruling anything in or anything out at this point,” he said.
In Hamilton earlier this week, Mr. Harper said it is clear the vote will come before the fixed date set by his law, and that he might trigger it.
“Obviously, the election will not be in October, 2009, and it's obvious I will have to analyze the parliamentary situation,” he said.
Mr. Dion responded that a productive fall session of Parliament is still possible, but also that public appetite for an election is rising, and triggering a vote “is something that we may do.”
Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe said he will move a no-confidence motion against the government unless it abandons “its right-wing ideology that goes against Quebec values and destroys everything in its wake.”
NDP Leader Jack Layton has been urging the other opposition parties to “put an end” to the Harper government, having already moved a number of no-confidence motions earlier this year in the House.
But the Liberals have kept the government afloat on a number of occasions, as large numbers of Liberal MPs failed to show up for crucial confidence votes.
