Published by Senator Grant Mitchell on 24 April 2009
Senator Jane Cordy did some great work yesterday in the Senate.
Senator Lowell Murray, one of the most respected senators with a great and storied career in public service, has presented a bill calling to repeal the Fixed Elections law that Mr. Harper brought in and then disregarded when he called the early election. The premise of repealing the bill is this: it meant nothing last fall and an election was still called, and we should not have laws that the government has no intention to follow. The law calls for an election in October 2009.
In questioning a Conservative senator who had spoke against repealing the fixed election law, Senator Cordy noted that the existing law still requires an October 19, 2009 election. This is despite the fact that we just had an election in the fall of 2008. The government’s law is so poorly written that it did not include a provision to cancel the 2009 election should another have taken place recently.
After pointing this out, Senator Cordy asked whether this meant that we will be required to have an election this fall. We didn’t receive an answer…