| It's just another way to say he's calling an election.
I can't really speak to other parliamentary systems (though I'm pretty certain they're similar on the point I'm about to make, just not sure enough to say it absolutely), but there is set election day in Canada. We don't go to the polls every four years on November 2nd.
In theory, any one term can never last longer than five years, but it rarely takes that long for new elections to be called. If I'm not mistaken, we had federal elections just a couple of years ago. We have things like "no confidence votes," where the leadership of the prime minister can be called into question and, if the votes against him are numerous enough, his party falls automatically. It's usually something prime ministers want to avoid, so they call the elections themselves. Or, as seems to be the case in this particular instance, they'll call an election when their party is doing particularly well.
But you don't "call" an election. I mean, you do. But to do that, you dissolve parliament. __________________  Sunny
"The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die." avie by Jessie |