One of the saving graces of traditional Canadian politics is that, most of the time, it's out of sight and out of mind. The electorate can spend almost the entire life of a Parliament paying not the slightest attention to the oscillations of the political class in Ottawa. Their lives little impoverished by the absence. That was before the American notion of fixed election dates slipped into the law books.
The pretext for this unwanted innovation was that it limited the power of the government of the day. This is rather doubtful and even if true the limitation is in the most insubstantial way possible. The life of a Parliament has always been fixed in post-Confederation Canada. Calling an election less than three years into a Parliament was understood to be political suicide (see Peterson, David) and anything too far into the fourth year was seen as an act of desperation (see Rae, Bob). As a practical matter majority governments would call elections about every four years. The only practical discretion a PM or Premier had was a few months of leeway. This was hardly a sweeping power.
Inevitably the media, which outside of genuine emergencies is always short of actual news, would toss an occasional election speculation story as a Parliament reached the three and half year mark. This, however, was understood to be filler. Something to shove between editorial perennials on the legalization of marijuana and the legalization of prostitution. A piece to be scanned grazingly between the second cup of coffee and the third bagel on a Sunday morning. There was only so much that could said about something that might or might not be happening in the foreseeable future.
Enter the fixed election date. First of all it's a fraudulent notion. In a Parliamentary system you can never really have fixed election dates because of the possibility of a minority government. Even in situations of a majority government it would not be too hard, given a bit of political legerdemain, to argue that a pressing national emergency requires an earlier election. So this is really a gentleman's rule in game where gentlemen are unusually scare.
The politicians didn't really want this and the electorate didn't care. From a practical standpoint there is only one real beneficiary to fixed election dates: The Media.
Actual journalism is terribly difficult. It involves leaving the office, meeting people, asking questions and occasionally getting sued or physically threatened. A lot of work to boot. Political journalism is somewhat easier since the objects of interest want to be interviewed, albeit while avoiding any transmission of genuine information. This means that there is less chasing and more chat. There is plenty of real work to do and there are still a few journalists who practice the old trade. But their numbers are dwindling. Editors don't like real journalism because it takes too long and pisses off too many people. Publishers hate real journalism because it's expensive.
If you can't afford the real thing you use the nearest substitute: Speculation. 2015 is going to be the year of the election speculation story. Nothing of substance will be discussed or decided over the next ten months. About a third of the articles published will chew over whether Mike Duffy is still a major political liability to the Harper Tories. Another third will be about Justin Trudeau's wonderfulness. The remaining third will be badly contorted readings of the latest opinion polls book ended with an eye grabbing headline and a hedged concluding paragraph. Thomas Mulcair will occasionally appear just to remind us that the NDP is still, unbelievably, the official opposition.
The older I get the more I realize that much work that does not involve building, breaking or maintaining something is busy work. Most office work is done to justify the salaries of the worker and those he serves or directs. Reduced to its essentials the efforts of dozens could be accomplished by one or two moderately productive individuals. This applies to journalism more than to most professions.
So welcome to Federal Election 2015. The greatest make work project in the history of Canadian journalism.
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