Paul Martin called the election.
The writ was dropped at about 1:30pm EST today in Ottawa as the Paul Martin asked Governor General Adrienne Clarkson to dissolve the 37th Parliament and to set an election for June 28th.
Paul Martin wasted no time in defining what he believes will be the ballot box question: What kind of Canada do you want?
Martin assumes that to be Canadian, one has to be a member of the Liberal party. Again, the Prime Minister tried to instill fear into Canadians about what Canada would be like under Stephen Harper instead of appealing to their hopes as to what any politician could do to benefit Canada.
Actually, it was all rather boring and this may indeed be indicative of the Liberal strategy: Drop the writ during the long weekend, when nobody is paying attention, for an election date during everyone’s summer vacation.
The polls have been bad and perhaps the Liberals want us to just relax, take it easy, and forget that anything bad happened at all.
However, Stephen Harper, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe were hardly silent today.
“After all the scandals, after 10 years of broken promises, after bad Liberal governments in B.C., Quebec and Ontario, people are asking themselves: ‘Do Paul Martin’s Liberals really deserve another four years?'” — Jack Layton, leader of the NDP
“There is a stark contrast between the Liberal Party and Bloc Québécois, but the choice is clear, Jean Chrétien’s Liberals and Martin’s Liberals have never hesitated to undermine the Quebec difference…the Bloc Québécois has demonstrated a determination to protect the Quebec difference” — Gilles Duceppe, leader of the Block Québecois
“You know in this country you can be Canadian without being a Liberal. The government seems to forget that. That’s why they need to be defeated. It’s that kind of arrogance that leads to the waste, mismanagement and corruption that we’ve seen. Martin must answer for the sponsorship scandal, the bloated gun registry and other wasted billions” — Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada