Angry in the Great White North

Liberal Party leader Stephane Dion is difficult to understand sometimes.  And this is in print, where his thick accent and tortured grammar are not factors.

In this case, the leader of the Liberal Party says that an election call now would hurt Stephen Harper and the Conservatives, so there is still a chance to avoid an election if only Stephen Harper would realize this.

Huh?  What?  If an election call now would hurt the Conservatives, wouldn't the Liberals want that?

Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion believes Prime Minister Stephen Harper could be dissuaded from calling a federal election in the next few weeks.

During a stop in Saskatoon on Sunday, Dion told reporters that Harper should realize Canadians will see an election call as irresponsible in light of pending byelections across the country.

Senior Conservatives suggested last week Harper could pull the plug on his minority government as early as Sept. 2.

"This is an invention by Mr. Harper to try to trigger an election before he loses the byelections," said Dion.

He said Harper could be convinced not to call an election once he realizes Canadians see the move as dishonest and irresponsible.

But why would Stephane Dion want Stephen Harper to be convinced to not call a "dishonest and irresponsible" election would result in Stephen Harper being punished by angry Canadians the ballot box?!

Fine, the Liberals would like to win by-elections prior to going into a general election immediately thereafter.  But then that means spending money twice on the four ridings in question (Don Valley West, Guelph, Saint-Lambert, and Westmount-Ville Marie).

Calling a general election before the by-elections are held would save money (perhaps not a lot, but clearly some money would not have to be spent), since the by-elections would be cancelled.  Calling a general election immediately after the by-elections are finished would clearly result in duplicated costs, as the work from the by-elections would have to be repeated, in their entirety, by both the parties and by Elections Canada.

So Stephane Dion is arguing that Stephen Harper ought to hold off triggering a general election because it is cheaper to fight the same by-elections twice?  But that doesn't make any sense either:

"A few days ago, he just called a fourth byelection in Don Valley West. It's taxpayers' money."

Well, yeah.  So call a general election now, and save the money, or wait until well after the by-elections are finished (into 2009 sometime would be a decent interval) so the question of the cost is not an issue.

I'm confused.  Just four weeks ago, Stephane Dion was saying Canadians wanted an election in the very near future:

There is a bubbling appetite among Canadians for a federal election, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion said yesterday at a campaign-style stop in Kanata to promote his controversial environmental plan.

The prediction comes as Prime Minister Stephen Harper is poised to call three by-elections, expected in September.

Mr. Dion stopped short of saying his party would bring down the minority government, but his contention that the mood has changed among the electorate signals he may be prepared to go to the polls before year end.

So Stephen Harper is prepared to give Stephane Dion what he seemed to want.  And Stephane Dion is arguing that Stephen Harper could be convinced not give Stephane Dion what Dion wants if he'd only realize that Harper is playing into Stephane Dion's plans.

Huh?  What?

Gee, it would almost seem like Stephane Dion does not want a fall election after all.

Addendum: Just to be clear, it's not that Stephane Dion is criticizing the potential timing of an election, or the cost, and so on.  That's to be expected, though a more confident leader would not even bother, and just say that he and his party are ready and willing.  But it is this element of convincing Stephen Harper to not call an election that is so odd.  If your opponent is about to make a big mistake, why give him a head's up?  Why not goad him into making the mistake, or at the very least, remain silent and let him stumble into making the serious error you perceive that he is about to make?