OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper spent a good part of his Easter break rejecting speculation that his minority government was preparing to engineer its own defeat in order to bring about a spring election.
But parliamentarians return to work Monday following a flurry of travel, speeches, advertisements and announcements that made their two-week hiatus seem more like a mini-campaign than a holiday.
Liberal Leader Stephane Dion and the Green Party's unelected Elizabeth May even struck a controversial deal not to enter candidates in each other's ridings in the next election so that May -- one of the country's leading environmentalists -- might gain her party's first Commons seat and Dion's environmental policy could receive her high-profile endorsement.
As debate resumes over Canada's role in Afghanistan and the country's environmental responsibilities, strategists will be watching the ebb and flow of voter opinion polls as Conservative popularity rises tantalizingly close to the magic 40 per cent needed to form a majority government.
Senate-reform legislation, imposing term limits of eight years on representatives in the Upper House instead of the current potential of 45 years, went into the break mired in a Liberal-dominated Senate committee and appeared destined to stay there. The party has declared its support for the measure but says the Tory legsislation is flawed.
All three national party leaders were criss-crossing the country for much of the two weeks the House had risen.
Meanwhile, the federal government made a series of funding and new program announcements, the most major of which was new tanks for the military.
That came following the deaths of eight Canadian soldiers in one week in Afghanistan, giving rise to new questions about Canada's role there.
On Sunday, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor reiterated the government line that Canada is committed to maintaining its military presence in Afghanistan only through February 2009.
But he said the new tanks are needed to continue Canada's military role elsewhere -- possibly in Darfur -- for the next 15 years.
Any reconsideration of Canada's future in Afghanistan "hasn't even been discussed in cabinet and will not be discussed until sometime next year,'' he said.
Even with Dion's co-operation, May's election chances seemed slim in the Nova Scotia riding not far from her Cape Breton roots -- Central Nova is a longtime a Conservative stronghold currently held by Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay.
On Sunday, May told CTV's Question Period that Canada's current first-past-the-post voting system is "archaic,'' and worse.
"Six hundred and sixty thousand people voted Green in the last election and we were unable to elect a single MP,'' she complained. "That's anti-democratic.''
While an election will undoubtedly bring new faces to Parliament Hill, whenever it comes, this session could be the last Canadians will see of several longtime or high-profile MPs.
Those who have declared they do not intend to run again include ex-prime minister Paul Martin, former defence minister Bill Graham, Liberal MPs Belinda Stronach, Lucienne Robillard and Tom Wappel, New Democrat Bill Blaikie, Independent Joe Comuzzi, and the Bloc's Michel Gauthier.
