Why can’t Harper call a snap election?
Because he is no longer the PM.
This is high stakes, no limit poker.
You think he should go all in?
I guess he could.
If there is a "vote of no confidence", he either resigns or dissolves Parliament and calls a new election. Almost certainly the latter.
In any case, he either calls a new election now or in a few weeks, after Parliament votes against him.
But can you have a vote of no confidence for no reason? Or would they wait for Harper to give them some cause?
Would it look fishy to voters to have a vote of no confidence in the coming week? Would it look like a slap in the face of the voting public or like the natural result of an election that give no candidate a majority?
They just had one like 2 months ago
“Why can’t Harper call a snap election?”
Because the decision isn’t his to make. He can go to the GG but she’s entirely within her purview to ask the other parties to form the government. I mean they’ve already demonstrated a willingness to step up to the plate so there’s nothing much he can do except maybe prorogue Parliament and pray that he can pull his keister out of the fire. My money says Caesar didn’t face so many knives waiting to be unsheathed.
The proper course is for the opposition to call for a no confidence votee.
That is a possibility. But there is a problem. The Speaker of the house was also a Quebec separatist in her wild and crazy days, and was a liberal appointed speaker of the house.
Lawfully, she has to listen to Harpers advise, to either Perouge (restart) parliament ( cooling off period) or call an election.
Lawfully, she has no digression in the matter, it's one or the other, but who knows. This is a coupe like all Marxist coups, planned before Harper even won the election a month ago.