Harper owes Canadians an explanation. If we don't want an election, why is he running an election campaign?

It seems everyone has been jumping up and down about the Conservative Party attack ads on Stephane Dion. I've seen one of them.

Aside from the poor quality, there isn't much there. In fact, these things can be turned right around on the producers (Jason Kenney, et al.).

While complaining about the performance of Stephane Dion as environment minister, they dismantled everything, without regard to utility. Why? Because they simply didn't care about the environment. They still don't.

With no program or ideas of their own, the Conservatives repackaged previous Liberal programs and held them out as their own. These are the same programs the Conservatives tell us produced no results for 13 years. And you can bet your boots the only reason anything is happening with regards the environment is because Sandra Buckler got handed a poll that said Harper could lose an election over the environment.

If anything comes out of these attack ads it is a demonstration that the Conservatives are out of touch with Canadians.

Canadians don't like election campaigns. While we are very much engaged politically, we find the behaviour of the political parties during the actual campaign somewhere between disgusting and repugnant.

Television attack ads, of any kind, are viewed as aggravating nonsense. If there is a redeeming factor it is that they are restricted to the campaign itself - until now.

The Conservatives, out of touch with Canadians as they are, have not so much attacked Stephan Dion as much as they have attacked the sensibilities of Canadians. If we don't like TV attack ads during an election campaign, why would we tolerate them at any other time. If you're the one that runs them and assaults us with such crap, you're not only stupid, you're the bad guy.

While everyone is calling these ads an act of desperation, I would prefer to view them as an act of stupidity.

Then we get nasty little Stevie making this suggestion:

"Don't they owe it to the Canadian people to explain, if there would be an election, why we would have the election?" he asked.

"What would be the point of an election, especially if it would just result in another minority anyway?"

No... if you, Steve, try to float something through parliament that the majority doesn't like, YOU have to explain it. And, it's interesting that you have called the election results without actually, you know, letting us vote. So, the point of an election would be to get rid of you, Steve.

And, since Harper is so concerned about how Canadians would feel about an election you'd think he would be aware that the parts of it we don't like and don't want to be assailed with are showing up on TV this week.

So, Harper, you owe us all an explanation. Why are we having to endure an election campaign without so much as a writ?

Update: If you really want to assault your senses, Devin has captured both the Conservative ads and Dion's plans for the next parliamentary session. He asks a very valid question at the end of his post.