OTTAWA -- After deciding the House of Commons was too unstable to recall and cancelling a leaders' summit due to scheduling difficulties, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's only justification for his sabre-rattling rush to an election has become a dysfunctional Parliament.
Well, hogwash.
Sure, the atmosphere has been poisoned by MPs so sick of each other they've retreated inside their own party's cocoon, refusing to play nice with outsiders.
But as Mr. Harper himself noted only nine months ago, this minority parliament works damn well.
Any objective analysis of its accomplishments would conclude this government has outperformed that hiccup of a Paul Martin reign or any of the three sleepy Jean Chrétien majorities.
To suggest the government's agenda was excessively stymied or shortened ignores the wide swath of change this government has delivered to Canadians.
Consider just the thumbnails of the impact delivered by the Harper Conservatives, usually in tandem with reluctant Liberals:
Taxes have been reduced across the board, the GST cut by two cents for shoppers, income-splitting granted to seniors and a dandy tax-free savings plan for everyone. Those who earn a living using tools or the parents of sports-minded children get special tax breaks for their equipment.
Criminals who buy, sell or use guns for violent crime will be hit with tougher mandatory prison sentences. A new age of sexual consent is in place so fathers like me can warn boyfriends to keep their paws off our daughters until they're 16, but preferably a lot longer.
Idiots who race fast cars down residential streets could end up parked in jail without their vehicles. Those who drive high on drugs can now have bodily fluids extracted for testing to secure impaired convictions.
Immigration policy has been refocused on applicants the economy needs, not those who would likely land in welfare lineups. Hundreds of "lost" Canadians denied their rightful status have had their citizenship restored.
Consumers have guaranteed improved food labelling, although that's no comfort to listeria-poisoning victims, and Canada led the world in banning bisphenol A products like baby bottles after the chemical was found to be a hormonal disrupter.
The government has put a candle in the Canadian military's "decade of darkness," although credit for funding boosts should be shared with the Paul Martin government. We fly Globemasters just like the Americans now and have new helicopters, tanks and armoured vehicles coming soon to bolster a mission in Kandahar that was extended by MPs until 2011.
Our increasingly important Arctic coastline is being reasserted under the Maple Leaf's control with stepped-up patrols, aggressive mapping and wider jurisdictional claims while kept under the sky eye of an advanced satellite the government blocked from falling into American hands.
Those Scotch-swirling stroke sessions between cabinet ministers and lobbyists seeking political favours are allegedly a thing of the past thanks to a paper trail of all contact, although "accidental" meetings have been known to happen in bars and restaurants for precisely the same purpose.
Even so, it's more complicated to buy political access now. The old $5,000 Liberal limit on donations to parties, candidates or leadership hopefuls has been lowered to a modest $1,000 annual maximum.
While greenhouse-gas emissions have not yet been hit with the hefty carbon tax proposed by the Liberals, the government has moved to regulate reductions over the longer term. National parks, particularly in the North, have been dramatically expanded in size.
Senators are being targeted for fixed terms and possibly forced to stand for election in the future.
A hefty helping of compensation and an emotional apology in the Commons has started healing from the decades-old native residential school tragedy. Less dramatic apologies were issued for the Chinese head tax and to the descendants of Komagata Maru passengers turned away in 1914.
Of course, the sudden demise of the 39th Parliament will render stillborn dozens of important initiatives, including legislation dealing with copyright protection, food and product safety, youth crime, a national drug strategy and identity theft.
But unfinished business happens whenever a snap election is called.
Mind you, a signature law passed in 2006 was to correct this electoral dysfunction by guaranteeing all governments a four-year term to complete their work.
Prime Minister Harper might have had cause to protest having his mandate shortened if the October 2009 date for Parliament's legislated demise was ignored. Trouble is, he's the guy breaking the spirit, if not the letter, of his own fixed election law.
-- Canwest News Service
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