What's their hurry?

Most of the recent federal election speculation has surrounded the Cons' brief post-budget rise in the polls. But let's keep in mind that an equally important reason why the Cons are so eager for a quick election may have nothing to do with the Cons' current place in the polls, and everything to do with the danger (to Harper at least) that their stay in office is on the verge of providing even more proof of the Cons' unfitness to govern. And there are a couple of indications that issues which the Cons would prefer to hide won't go away anytime soon.

First, as noted by Jeff, there's NDP MP Paul Dewar's call for an audit of all Conservative appointments since the Accountability Act passed in December in light of the Ottawa mayoralty scandal:

A New Democrat MP is calling for an audit of all government appointments made since the Federal Accountability Act was passed in December in light of a police investigation into claims of a potentially criminal patronage offer.

Ottawa MP Paul Dewar says the investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police reveals gaping holes remain in governance issues despite the Conservatives' vaunted ethics legislation - which has been passed by Parliament but parts of which are not yet in force...

Dewar argues that if the minority government had set up a public appointments commission as envisaged by the FAA, such allegations would become a thing of the past.

"I think what we need to do now is have an audit of all of the appointments that have been made since the Accountability Act was passed," Dewar said outside the Commons.

"Really, that's what has to happen so we can shine some light on what's been happening in the backrooms, in the back doors of government."

And as if that weren't enough for the Cons to worry about, Democracy Watch (which was a key ally in their 2006 election win) has had enough of Harper on accountability and other issues, and is now demanding an audit of the Cons' highly dubious democratic reform process:

The public advocacy group Democracy Watch says it was enlisted to help fill rosters on citizens' panels studying federal democratic reform - even though the panels were supposed to exclude special-interest organizations.

Now the group wants the auditor general to audit the Conservative government's $900,000 exercise in consulting Canadians...

Democracy Watch head Duff Conacher said Wednesday that the breach in the consultation protocol makes a mockery of Conservative assertions that the process will hear from a representative sample of Canadians while keeping out special interests.

"The federal Conservatives have contracted to conduct a consultation that seems like a con job," said Conacher.

To my knowledge, there hasn't yet been any indication of follow-through on either audit suggestion. But it can only be glaringly clear to the Cons that no matter how much of a free ride they've received in the press, there are plenty of concerned Canadians keeping a very close watch on what they're doing in power.

Which means that even if the Cons aren't in majority territory when they precipitate a trip to the polls, it may still be in their interest to force an election before there's time for the current scandals to be thoroughly investigated - or for others to go public. And that possibility should form a significant part of the opposition's message: if the Cons want an election now, it's largely because of what they fear having exposed later.

(Edit: fixed links.)