The next election is about leadership and trust.Stephen Harper needs to find out if Canadians want him as a full-time Prime Minister; Stéphane Dion needs to know if he is the real Liberal leader or just a flag bearer waiting for a future king; Jack Layton must establish himself as the leader of a party that is more than a parking space for disillusioned voters between elections and a real alternative to the traditional governing parties; Gilles Duceppe needs to know if he is still leading a party with real supporters, or a leftover ghost organization born, like the Reform party, out of the post-Mulroney Progressive Conservative collapse.

As for Green Leader Elizabeth May, unfortunately, she has forfeited her chance to create an identity after the agreement with the Liberals in Nova Scotia.

As it stands now, it appears Harper will ask the Governor General to dissolve Parliament between Sept. 6 and 8, sending Canadians to the polls on Oct. 14.

Of course, Harper must explain to voters why he is not respecting a law about a fixed election date his government approved, and he will probably answer that, as Dion often said during the summer, Canadians want an election.

This issue, however, will not be a make-it-or-break-it argument during the campaign.

Elections are always called when the interests of a political organization are served. In this case it’s the Conservatives, as in the past it was the Liberals.

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