Ottawa: Canada's prime minister will call snap elections soon, opposition leader Stephane Dion said after the two failed to agree on a common agenda for the upcoming session of Parliament.
"Yes, there will be an election," the Liberal leader said after meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper at his official residence yesterday, citing a "gulf of differences between us and this very Conservative government."
Harper s chief spokesman Kory Teneycke meanwhile said the prime minister could decide in as little as two or three days whether to hold a general election, or not, also citing irreconcilable differences between the parties.
"He ll have to deliberate over the next few days and make a decision in due course," Teneycke said.
Harper, who has headed a minority government since January 2006, has insisted in recent weeks that elections were inevitable to break a deadlock with opposition parties on several issues.
However, he faces criticism that doing so would break his own timetable for the next elections in October 2009 -- a date he set into law, but which allows for leeway in the case of minority governments.
In a bid to find common ground and avoid going to the polls, Harper met since Friday with the leaders of Canada s three opposition parties, including Dion, who leads the biggest faction.
But none of the opposition leaders in speaking with reporters gave any indications they would support the government going forward. To survive, the government needs the support of at least one of the three opposition parties.
