Spring Election Will Kill 500 Bills

Hundreds of pieces of unpassed legislation will die on the chamber floor if an election is called later this week.

Along with co-operation and logic, the first casualties of a spring election in Canada will be roughly 500 pieces of unpassed legislation, some of which have already been killed and resurrected several times since Stephen Harper became prime minister. Some, like the bill that would impose mandatory minimum sentences for marijuana possession, have gone through several incarnations thanks to election calls in 2006 and 2008, and the two prorogations in 2008 and 2009. Harper has passed only half of his proposed legislation, posting the worst prime ministerial batting average since 1945. But the death of popular crime legislation is not necessarily a disadvantage to the Tories, who can now campaign in a spring election on the promise to enact it.