Calling it in Canada

In this story on the Canwest news wire, the constitutional contrasts even between colony and mother country become apparent.

Advocacy group Democracy Watch is suing the Prime Minister for calling a snap election for the wrong reasons.

Democracy Watch lawyer Peter Rosenthal argued Tuesday that a plain reading of the legislation governing election dates combined with comments made by Conservative MP Rob Nicholson, who was justice minister at the time of the bill’s introduction, support his contention that Harper should not have been able to ask Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean to dissolve Parliament, as he did last September.

Democracy Watch get the PR line both ways – if they win, Harper broke his own law. If they lose, Harper’s own law doesn’t fulfil its promised purpose of fixing election dates.