Dissolution of Parliament is ordered by the Governor General (GG) of Canada, our represetative of the Queen of England, usually on the recommendation of the Prime Minister (PM). This results in a general election for the Members of Parliament (MPs).

If the government lost a non-confidence vote, the PM would have a short car ride to the GG residence to formally ask for the dissolution of Parliament. Usually, the GG would say yes.

Non-confidence would include

- defeat of the budget;

- anything else that would be considered important.

As indicated, a defeat of the budget would customarily be considered as a non-confidence in the government. Usually, a majority government would ensure that enough of its MPs would be present in the House to vote YES to pass the budget. But, there could be surprises if the government has a slim majority, e.g. unforseen sickness of its own MPs, while the oppositions send their sick MPs in, by ambulances, for the vote.

There are other situations for the opposition to introduce a non-confidence motion, and sometimes they can ambush the government, e.g. they could have a head counts on both sides of the House and surprise the government with a non-confidence motion.

In sum, an election could be called anytime before the October date under various scenarios, including a non-confidence, but for the current situation it is under the control of the PM Harper.

The government can introduce the budget ahead of the election with lots incentives to please everybody. If Parliament is dissolved and an election is called, the budget would not have a chance to be passed by the House (it dies on the Order Paper). But it can always be re-introduced, as a new bill, following a re-election just like what Premier Wynne has done (she re-tabled the same budget after her victory with a comfortable majority).

My crystal ball says that the Fed would introduce a business plan (a budget in disguise), but let's just call it a plan, or a "vision for the future" to create wealth and jobs for the people of Canada during this "difficult" time. The plan would call for diversification in our natural resource development and expanding our customer base (from the painful experiences with the Keystone pipeline, and Minister Rickford and his colleagues have acknowledged).

In addition to oil exploration, the government would encourage and support the development of the RoF, in a vertical integration scheme, from raw chromite to stainless steel using the abundant natural gas coming from the western provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan, and of course KWG/us investors would be pleased). The stainless steel production would be done in Sorel (that would please the Quebecers). The RR, including the NS from Nakina to the RoF (ONTC workers and their families would be pleased) and ship systems would be used for transportation the value-added products to the West (Europe) and the East (China, India, Japan, Korea, etc).

We don't need to worry about the NS route to the USA, since the infrastructures are in place to transport the stuff. At least, we don't need something like the Keystone XL pipeline to send the stuff south of the border, big trucks and trains will do the job.

My guess is that Minister Rickford has all this in his "vision for the future" for his Natural Resources portfolio (plus FedNor Minister, meaning the RoF) just in time for a late Spring election. This vision would have a $1B cheque included for infrastructure development for Ontario North. Perhaps we should remind him (e-mail, text message, phone, fax?, whatever), just to make sure that he won't forget to put it in.

goldhunter