Do not force a new Canadian election!

Dear Honourable Stephen Harper and associate Members of Parliament;

As stated in the Globe and Mail, on Thursday April 28th, 2005, the honourable Stephen Harper will move to bring a no-confidence vote against the liberal government in the following month. Such an action has dire consequences for both Canadian Democracy, and the faith one has in Canadian Politics.

Although this faith has been repeatedly shattered, given the claims of corruption brought forth in regards to the sponsership scandal and the Gomery inquiry, forcing an election prior to the release of the report would undermine Canadian's ability to judge for themselves whether the Liberal government has lost the 'moral authority' to govern. While there is much anger with the Liberal Government, in Quebec and throughout Canada, for the sake of democracy, Canadians must be able to judge for themselves the scope of the injustice of the sponsership scandal. As a result, an election should not be forced until the Gomery Report has been produced.

Secondly, such an election would be a waste of both time that lawmakers could spend doing their job, as well as of the taxpayers money. Millions were lost in the sponsership scandal, but just how many more millions would be lost in an election that would produce near-identical results as the previous one. It is highly doubtful that given the divided support of Canadians an election would result in anything other than another minority government. As a result, it would be likley that such an election would produce a conservative or liberal minority government to be toppled once again a year or so after its formation. In other words, the question must arise, "Why must an election be held now?"

It is obvious that the Conservative Party's answer to this is that the liberal government has lost all moral authority to govern. However, this sponsership scandal is hardly new to this minority government, as it was equally an issue in the previous federal election of 2004. The only change is the production of the Gomery report revealing the details of the scandal. And that is exactly why the federal election should wait until at the very least the entire report has been released. Let the Canadian people see for themselves the details of the corruption first hand. There should be no reason for the Canadian people to have to rely on the media's point of view of the Gomery inquiry. It should be released to the public PRIOR to any move for a federal election.

Finally, in June 2004, the Canadian people expressed their wish to have a divided parliament. There was no clear majority, which proves to the legistlature that the Canadian people are divided. The Canadian elected the LIBERAL party as GOVERNING party, the CONSERVATIVE party as OPPOSITION, and both the NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY and PARTI BLOC QUEBECOIS as significant but smaller OPPOSITION parties. Therefore, each of these parties should work towards comprimises which BEST REFLECT the WILL of the Canadian People. A Minority Parliament is an expression of the Canadain People's desire for comprimise.