On little-known powers

With the kind of media attention that the NDP received today inevitably comes increased notice from the blogosphere as well. And for reasons unknown, Dylan at Right of Centre Ice took the opportunity to propagate the Lib myth that a little-known constitutional provision gives Jack Layton the sole authority to determine the timing of each election:

Jack says he'll be "tough" with the CPC on the environment and won't let them off the hook easily. In the end, I believe the New Democratized Clean Air Act will be just as idealistic and useless as the CPC version when all is said and done and the writ is dropped by Jack's hand.

Needless to say, it must have been a particularly clever trick for Layton to use his writ-control techniques to force the Libs and Bloc to each decline to vote down the Cons on confidence matters last year while the NDP never had to do so. And PMS must not relish the possibility that any attempt to approach the Governor-General to dissolve Parliament could be stopped by a Dipper-controlled force field.

But at least those of us in the NDP can be happy to have total control over election timing. And we can only hope Layton uses the power as a chip to bargain for the "tough" environmental legislation which Dylan seems to think the NDP can't win.

(As an added bonus, not that it was only in writing his next post that Dylan was willing to acknowledge putting on his tin-foil hat.)

Edit: cleaned up wording.