Still deadlocked- Tories and Grits

The statistically tied major parties continue to glare at each other, the Liberals following a defensive policy rather than trying to defeat the minority Conservatives. Despite the occasional outlier that usually shows a bounce for the Conservative party, they remain essentially tied.

I would have thought a spring election likely, as while Conservatives tend to show bounces in newspaper polls, the Liberals tend to bounce in general elections. However, an election will wait until Fall, now. A clue to such timing will be the results of the upcoming by-election in Westmount. The Liberals are fielding former Astronaut Marc Garneau. He will win, because Westmount is strongly Liberal. The question is how will the other parties fare?

A strong showing by the Greens or the NDP might actually lead to the Liberals continuing to avoid forcing a confidence vote. On the other hand, an exceptionally low Conservative vote might encourage the Opposition to bring down the Government. The problem facing all the parties is that Canadian's positions regarding policies have ossified around the parties. Liberals support Liberal policies, and Conservatives reject them

"Harper's reaction to the tax shift was to say Dion was "screwing the whole country,"

while the other parties hardly register on policy issues...NDP....Green...Bloq

Unfortunately, the vicious polarisation that characterises politics south of the border seems to have infected the House, which is why the Harper Government seems to do nothing but choose crudities to deride the positions of the other parties.