Tuesday

Afghanistan Entrée to Spring Election Fading

This one came and left pretty quickly. Over the past few days it looked like an election was imminent over a Conservative bill to extend the Afghan mission. The motivation seemed to me to be coalescing around a desire to exploit perceived differences among Liberal leadership about how the mission should go.

But as of this morning it sounds like the liberals have agreed to a position regarding post 2011 definitions of the engagement. I'm guessing the liberals and conservatives will be able to find some agreement to avoid defeat of the bill, and they will end up waiting for the budget as the motivation for defeating the government.

An election seems needed to clean house. The liberals can drop Dion after an election attempt. The Bloc can drop Mr quit-no-not-quit. The NDP & Greens will get a new snapshot of where they stand. The conservatives can experience their humbling inability to grow past their current minority -thwarting their ability to deploy their hidden agenda.

The next few days will be interesting to watch.