Prime Minister Stephen Harper addresses the crowd as he visits Cupids, N.L., on Thursday. (Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press)Prime Minister Stephen Harper hinted strongly Thursday that he may do something to trigger an election because Parliament is not functioning anymore.
Speaking in Newfoundland and Labrador, Harper said Parliament is becoming increasingly dysfunctional, laying most of the blame on Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion and his party.
"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, without elaborating on his plans.
He said legislation is being stalled in the Liberal-dominated Senate and obstructed in the House of Commons "principally by Mr. Dion."
Harper added that the committee system is "increasingly in chaos," an apparent reference to bickering taking place at an ethics committee probe into Tory election ad spending.
Opposition MPs have complained that senior Conservative witnesses have refused to appear while Tory members have accused the committee of being partisan.
He said Dion keeps threatening to force an election. But he said Dion should let Parliament work; otherwise Canadians will have to decide who should have a mandate to govern.
"Two of the three opposition parties don't support the government and say we should be defeated. Mr. Dion says he doesn’t support the government but won't say, you know, whether he will defeat us or not," Harper said.
"I don’t think that’s a tenable situation."
Last month, in a speech to Conservative party members in Quebec, Harper said Dion should "fish or cut bait" on a fall election. But he appeared to go one step further with his comments on Wednesday.
"This is an important message that he sent today because he is really for the first time himself opening the door to the idea that he would be the one to go and dissolve Parliament and provoke an election," CBC's Rosemary Barton said.
There is legislation that sets a fixed election date, the next one scheduled for October 2009.
But Harper could go to the Governor General, explain why Parliament isn't working and ask for Parliament to be dissolved, Barton said.
