The Economist surveys the election

The British-based weekly newspaper, The Economist (subscriber-only link) outlines today's election for non-Canadians:

Canada's Liberals are set to lose a general election after a dozen years in office. Opinion polls show the Conservative opposition, led by Stephen Harper, with a lead of some 10% over the moribund governing party of Paul Martin. Mr Martin's bumbling leadership is largely to blame [. . .]

It must be galling to Mr Martin that his government is being taken down, in part, by a scandal that occurred under his predecessor, Jean Chrétien. That involved the diversion of funds that were supposed to be used to persuade Quebec to stay in the union. Instead some ended up lining the pockets of Liberal cronies. Mr Martin's efforts to distance himself from it did little to help. When the auditor general released her report on the charges a few months into his term he feebly claimed he had been kept "out of the loop" on Quebec during Mr Chrétien's reign. He also promised to testify in any inquiry and fired the public works minister most closely associated with the scandal. But voters were unimpressed. Mr Martin's poll numbers tumbled.

He is much to blame for his woes. His leadership has been plagued by missteps. His decision to call an early election in May 2004, despite obvious public disgust over the scandal, was a mistake. He wanted a mandate for his policies; instead he was left with a minority government. When his fragile hold on power was challenged by a house motion last year calling on the government to resign he refused, citing fine points of parliamentary procedure to claim it was not a vote of no confidence. This reinforced a perception of the Liberals as corrupt and unresponsive.