As predicted, the Conservatives are about to announce reforms to the much-maligned Employment Insurance scheme. This move comes shortly after the Liberals announced the intention to force an election, and walked out of the non-productive "working group" set up over the summer.
By doing this, Mr. Harper hopes to force Mr. Ignatieff into an unpleasant choice: either defeat the government and kill the very reforms he was rattling sabres over in the spring; or back off on the election posturing and look indecisive.
My view: let the Conservatives bring forward their proposals. It is likely that these proposals will go further than anything the Conservatives would normally bring forward, in that they are effectively bluffing, counting on the Liberals to steam more towards an election than actually getting things done.
However, if the Liberals let the EI reforms ride, then the joke is on the Conservatives. While it would mean that the Conservatives would then be able to point to EI reforms as something done on their watch, at the end of the day it should be about getting results for Canadians and not taking the credit.
I would much rather see the Liberals call the Conservative's bluff, perhaps forcing them to call an election on their own rather than pass their own proposals.
But given Mr. Ignatieff's total failure to be anything other than "not the Conservatives", I suspect he'll go for the election anyways.
