The end of summer, and you know what that means...

"We're tired of propping up a minority Conservative government. We want the NDP and Bloc to prop up a minority Liberal government instead."

Less than 11 months after Stephane Dion's Liberal party got pasted in an election, less than 9 months after the Coalition of the Unintended results was overturned and rejected, 4 months after Micheal Ignatieff ascended to the top job in the Liberal party, and he wants an election?

Wow, that took less time than I thought it would.

Then again, the question I have is "are we REALLY going to go to the polls this fall"?

Let's examine. The Liberal Party is on a high after drastically improving their fundraising in the second quarter of this year, but what happened during that second quarter? A Liberal Leadership Convention in which all 3000 people in attendance had to have paid an entrance fee of approximately $1000 (which was the the same as in 2006). Of COURSE their fundraising is going to be higher. What interests me is whether that fundraising "machine" drops back to normal during the third and subsequent quarters. THAT will be the true test of whether the Liberals are going to make a game of the next election.

The Liberals are also "tired of propping up the Conservatives", and I can understand the point. Of the three opposition parties, the Liberals are the only party which agree with the Conservatives on anything resembling policies... at least until they're trying to get votes. But the understanding is that in our system, the two largest caucuses should be fighting, not agreeing, and that puts a minority Conservative government in tough when they need something important passed.

Finally, let's look at something Ignatieff and his finance critic have attacked on... finances:

Earlier Tuesday, Liberal finance critic John McCallum said that his party isn't satisfied with the Conservative government's management of the economic crisis, saying the Tories were too slow at getting fiscal stimulus money out the door this summer.

So let's see. They complained last December when the Conservatives decided not to do anything further to stimulate the economy, having already decreased taxes over the previous year and a half. They then complained more when the Conservatives relented and spent money on stimulus projects, causing a huge deficit. Now they're complaining because the stimulus money hasn't gone out the door fast enough?

My prediction? The Liberals HAVE to go now, because if they don't, the economy recovers and they have no chance in the next election. Either way, good luck to the people viewed as causing the election. Hopefully it's not only about EI.